Alaska Airlines Flight 870 Adjusted for Solar Eclipse Chasers

Summary: The March 8 Alaska Airlines flight 870 adjusted for solar eclipse chasers avails viewing 2016's total solar eclipse to all of the flight's passengers.

NASA’s composite image of total solar eclipse (grey and white) from Williams College Expedition to Easter Island in the South Pacific (July 11, 2010) embedded with image of sun’s outer corona (shown in red false color); Credits = Williams College Eclipse Expedition (Jay M. Pasachoff, Muzhou Lu, Craig Malamut); SOHO’s LASCO image courtesy of NASA/ESA; solar disk image from NASA’s SDO; compositing by Steele Hill, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA Goddard Photo and Video), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

On Tuesday, March 8, Alaska Airlines Flight 870 is taking off at 2:10 p.m., 28 minutes later than its average departure time, to accommodate viewing of the day’s total solar eclipse north of Honolulu, Hawaii, by eclipse chasers among the flight’s 163 passengers.

After 2015’s total solar eclipse on March 20, Joe Rao, eclipse chaser and associate astronomer at the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium in New York City, identified Alaska Airlines Flight 870 as the right flight, apart from a too-early departure time, for sky high views of 2016’s March 8 total solar eclipse. Rao presented Alaska Airlines with a suggested flight plan devised by Glenn Schneider, astronomer at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory in Tucson and veteran of 32 eclipses.

Approval for delaying flight departure time to accommodate the eclipse chaser passengers came from Chase Craig, Alaska Airlines’ director of onboard brand experience.

“We recognize our customer’s passions,” Craig explains in Alaska Airlines’ staff writer Cole Cosgrove’s article, posted Monday, March 7, on the airline’s blog. “Certainly we can’t change flight plans for every interest, but this was a special moment, so we thought it was worth it. Now we have a plane full of customers who will be treated to a special occurrence.”

Alaska Airlines Flight 870 is expected to intercept the March 8 total solar eclipse at a distance of 695 miles north of Honolulu. Eclipse chasers and other passengers will view the eclipse from an altitude of 37,000 feet and at a flight speed of 530 miles per hour.

Beginning at 5:35 p.m., the black disc of the new supermoon will obscure, or hide, the sun in the path of totality. The total solar eclipse will last for 1 minute 53 seconds for the passengers of Alaska Airlines Flight 870.

“In the few minutes leading up to the total phase -- much like ‘curtain time’ at a Broadway show -- the light in the cabin will begin to slowly diminish as the waning crescent of the sun is gradually extinguished,” explains Rao, who will occupy window seat 32F.

Seated in 8F, Dan McGlaun, project manager for a Fortune 500 organization, is including 200 pairs of special filtered glasses in onboard luggage for his 12th total solar eclipse. He plans to distribute them to crew and fellow passengers on Alaska Airlines Flight 870.

"You can't be doing something that's this exciting and not give everybody onboard the chance to at least participate," McGlaun explains.

Captain Brian Holm, Alaska Airlines’ fleet director, and Captain Hal Anderson, pilot, have refined the flight path for a perfect interception with the March 8 total solar eclipse. A proposed flight path develops into a specific flight path March 8 as Alaska Airlines’ Dispatch team balances weather and wind for route efficiency.

Coordination of information between Captain Anderson and Oceanic Air Traffic Control allows for the possibility of more than the usual number of tactical changes.

“The key to success here is meeting some very tight time constraints -- specific latitudes and longitudes over the ocean,” Anderson explains. “With the flight management computer, it’s a pretty easy challenge, but it’s something we need to pay very close attention to. We don’t want to be too far ahead or too far behind schedule.”

Eclipse chasers also refer to themselves as umbraphiles. The term honors the moon’s umbra, the dark shadow cone that announces the eclipse’s path across Earth’s surface. A dozen astronomers and veteran eclipse chasers number among Alaska Airlines Flight 870’s 163 passengers.

“We are all veteran eclipse chasers who have traveled around the world to ‘bask in the shadow of the moon’ for a few precious minutes,” Rao says.

Umbraphiles joining Rao in onsite appreciation of the March 8 total solar eclipse via Alaska Airlines Flight 870 include Craig Small, a semi-retired astronomer from the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium. Viewing the March 8 total solar eclipse in seat 7F, as his 31st, qualifies him as one of the world’s Big Four eclipse viewers.

“I’m not one for hyperbole, but you don’t just see an eclipse, you experience it with every fiber of your being,” Small explains. “It is the most spectacular naturally occurring event that anyone could witness in their lifetime.”

Alaska Airlines Flight 870 departs Anchorage International Airport (PANC) at 2:10 p.m. Alaska Standard Time. Landing at Honolulu International Airport (PHNL) is slated for 7:23 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time. With Alaska Standard Time one hour ahead of Honolulu’s time zone, the flight lasts 5 hours 56 minutes.

“We on the Alaska Airlines flight will be the last people in the world to see this eclipse -- nobody will see it after us,” Craig Small notes.

Alaska Airlines Flight 870 may be followed online Tuesday, March 8, at FlightAware.com.

Alaska Airlines Flight 870's delayed departure Tuesday, March 8, is expected to allow for a perfect intercept north of Honolulu with the date's total solar eclipse: The Verge @verge via Twitter March 7, 2016

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

solar eclipse composite image: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA Goddard Photo and Video), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/4794482910/

Alaska Airlines Flight 870's delayed departure Tuesday, March 8, is expected to allow for a perfect intercept north of Honolulu with the date's total solar eclipse: The Verge @verge via Twitter March 7, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/verge/status/706945330504474625

For further information:

“Alaska Airlines 870.” FlightAware.
Available @ https://flightaware.com/live/flight/ASA870/history/20160308/2300Z/PANC/PHNL

Cosgrove, Cole. “Chasing the shadow of the moon: To intercept eclipse, Alaska Airlines adjusts flight plan to delight astronomers.” Alaska Air. March 7, 2016.
Available @ http://blog.alaskaair.com/alaska-airlines/news/eclipse-flight/

Grush, Loren. “Alaska Airlines is adjusting a plane’s flight plan so passengers can see tomorrow’s solar eclipse.” The Verge. March 7, 2016.
Available @ http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/7/11174802/solar-eclipse-march-2016-alaska-airlines-flight-870

Marriner, Derdriu. "2016 Eclipse Lineup Features Two Lunar and Two Solar Eclipses." Earth and Space News. Tuesday, March 8, 2016.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/03/2016-eclipse-lineup-features-two-lunar.html

McClure, Bruce. "Supermoon total solar eclipse March 8-9." EarthSky > Tonight. March 8, 2016.
Available @ http://earthsky.org/?p=230175

McGlaun, Dan. “The Experience of Totality.” 06/03/2014. Astrocon 2017.
Available @ https://astrocon2017.astroleague.org/node/16

The Verge @verge. "Alaska Airlines is adjusting a plane's flight plan so passengers can see the total solar eclipse." Twitter. March 7, 2016.
Available @ https://twitter.com/verge/status/706945330504474625