Alaska Airlines shifts flight for better eclipse viewing (Image: Alaska Airlines)
As an avowed window-seat flyer, this item from Alaska Airlines really grabbed my attention this morning:
When the sun and the moon and the Earth align this week, an Alaska Airlines jet is planning to arrive in the right place at the right time to catch the total solar eclipse.
Tuesday’s rendezvous over the Pacific Ocean is not luck, but a precisely planned equation. The calculations began a year ago. The only variable was the plane.
In window seat 32F, Joe Rao will be one of the dozen astronomers and veteran “eclipse chasers” among the 163 passengers onboard, gazing out oval windows as the moon blocks the sun for nearly two minutes.
He’s an associate astronomer at the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium(where astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is director). About a year ago, Rao discovered that Alaska Airlines Flight 870 from Anchorage to Honolulu would intersect the “path of totality” – the darkest shadow of the moon as it passes over the Earth.
But the flight’s normally scheduled departure time would be 25 minutes too early, missing the grand spectacle.
Rather than attempt to move the sun or the moon or the Earth, Rao called Alaska Airlines.
Alaska decided to move the plane.
To read the full post about this unusual flight on the Alaska Airlines blog, click here.
What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever seen looking out a plane window? Are you a window or aisle seat flyer? Please leave your comments below.
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Dave D says
March 8, 2016 at 7:10 pmThe comet Hale-Bopp in the mid 1990s. I was flying back to LA from DC with a group of junior high students during spring break. A United Airlines pilot turned so the left side then the right side could get a sideways look at the comet from 35,000 feet. Phenomenal!
Pakmann2k says
March 8, 2016 at 2:46 pmThanks! I grew up staring out the windows of airplanes big and small as long as I can remember. Some of my most memorable views are out the front window, but the funnest ones still, are always out the side.
Chris McGinnis says
March 8, 2016 at 2:04 pmWow! That is cool! Thanks for sharing it.
Pakmann2k says
March 8, 2016 at 1:50 pmCoolest thing I ever saw was two T38s right off our wings while flying with my dad from Deer Valley to Lake Havasu in our Piper Cherokee Arrow. I was about 12 and he let me work the radios flying through a Military Operating Area (MOA). With an obvious minor on the radio, Luke approach (Luke AFB tower) decided to have a little fun with me. Told us traffic was approaching us from below and behind. We didn’t see them until they were right there with us. Due to radio differences, we could not communicate with them but they slowed down and flew in formation with us for about a minute, waved, hit the burners and left us like we were sitting still. It was way before cel phones and we didn’t have a camera with us. It’s a picture I get to keep for myself for all time.
Dan Leifker says
March 8, 2016 at 11:11 amI hope the pilots don’t look up during the eclipse… yikes.