DETROIT – When I heard that Delta Airlines was announcing that they were re-timing one flight from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) up to Detroit Metro Airport (DTW), I knew from the start that I wanted to be on this flight to be able to see the total solar eclipse from the point of view, not many people would get to see it from.
The last time we had a solar eclipse, I was a middle school science teacher at Lincoln Middle School in Shinnston, West Virginia. The other 8th-grade teacher, Becky, and I bought solar eclipse glasses for every 8th grader in the building, had them put an envelope in their science notebooks to keep it, and gave them an assignment to write/draw about.
This eclipse also happened in the afternoon, so we took the kids outside during the eclipse, had them put on their glasses, and had them work on their assignments.
To see my student’s reaction to being part of the eclipse and write about it in their notebooks was amazing. So, when I knew this was happening, I knew I had to be a part of it as well.
My partner, Johnathan, is a flight attendant for Delta Airlines, based in Detroit. He told me all about it after the announcement was made and tickets for the flight went live, and the next thing I knew, I was purchasing a ticket for this special flight.
Fast-forward to Monday (April 8), when I landed in Austin after flying down this morning from Detroit; once I walked off the jetbridge, you saw all the pomp and circumstance that the flight brought for not only the passengers but also the airport personnel, Delta employees, and anyone walking by the gate or in the terminal.
Everyone was taking pictures and videos. We took a group picture of all the passengers and Delta personnel before we boarded the plane to take off for the path of totality.
We boarded the plane, pushed back from the gate after sitting there for about 15 minutes so the pilots could time it right for us to get into the path of totality, hit the runway, and took off, heading for Northeastern Arkansas and Southern Missouri in the path of totality.
The closer we got to the path, the darker it got on the plane. Then, the flight attendants took their seats as we entered the zone of 100% coverage for the eclipse, and the pilot got on the PA system and announced that we were in the path of totality and we could see the full coverage.
The excitement was palpable on the plane. Everyone was so excited to get a rare view of this event from 37,000 feet in the air! Everyone was taking videos and photos on the Airbus A220 that Delta Air Lines was using for this flight due to the large size of the windows, which gave everyone maximum viewing of the solar eclipse.
We remained in the path of totality for five to seven minutes before continuing our trek northeastward, heading into Michigan to land at Detroit Metro Airport.
For the remainder of the flight, people were up and down the aisle, talking with their seatmates and other people, trading pictures, and talking about how much they enjoyed this flight.
After landing at Detroit Metro Airport, Delta Airlines held pomp and circumstance for all passengers on their flights, including pictures and more.
Personally, I was amazed that I got to see the solar eclipse from this vantage. We always talk about cloud cover and how the forecast hinges on how much cloud cover is around when we know solar eclipses are coming and continuously watch the forecast. But in this case, as long as we stayed on schedule for departures and arrivals, it didn’t matter whether we had clouds or not because we were flying above them, so we would see the solar eclipse no matter what.
Everyone on that plane really wanted to see the eclipse from this view, whether it was people like me who had a science interest or an aviation interest, or Delta employees and even the flight attendants who told us on our initial descent into Detroit Metro Airport that our flight was one they would never forget. How everyone got along, and how much fun we had seeing something like this.
For me, it’s not only the science of seeing an event like this and how rare it is but also seeing it from a point of view that only 250-300 people would see on both of these flights.
I’ve not had a smile as big on my face as I did covering and attending this event as part of our total solar eclipse coverage.
It may seem simple, but sometimes, it’s the simple things—like doing something you may not have thought of doing or looking at something from a different point of view—that really make the difference. In this case, it was turning day into night and then back into day at a very high altitude!