As the Moon blots out more than 90% of the Sun across Britain and totality sweeps across parts of Greenland, Iceland and Spain, airlines are launching special flights into the shadow. However, for crew on ordinary services, the celestial spectacle may bring a rather less glamorous job: stopping passengers from blinding themselves for the sake of a window-seat selfie.
If you are flying across Europe this evening, that battle for the window seat may suddenly become even more intense.
A total solar eclipse will sweep across northern Russia, Greenland, Iceland, the Atlantic and northern Spain today, August 12, with a tiny corner of Portugal also falling inside the path of totality.
The UK will miss the full blackout, but not by much: around 90% to 96% of the Sun will be covered at the peak at approximately 1900 BST, making this the most impressive eclipse seen from Britain since 1999.
For passengers fortunate enough to be in the right aircraft, on the correct side, at precisely the right time, the view from cruising altitude could be extraordinary. There is less atmosphere and, crucially, the aircraft may be above any cloud that would ruin the show on the ground.
But let us clear up one rather important point before everybody presses their face against a window: an aircraft window is not a solar-viewing filter.
No, the Aircraft Window Will Not Protect Your Eyes
According to NASA’s eclipse safety guidance, it is unsafe to look directly at any part of the bright Sun without specialised eye protection, except during the brief period of complete totality.
Anyone watching a partial eclipse must use proper eclipse glasses or a handheld viewer meeting the ISO 12312-2 standard throughout.
Normal sunglasses are not sufficient, no matter how expensive they were in Duty Free, and neither is the aircraft window. Cameras, binoculars and telescopes require correctly fitted solar filters of their own; looking through them while merely wearing eclipse glasses can cause severe eye injury.
That creates a distinctly airline-shaped problem. On normal flights crossing the eclipse zone, cabin crew could find themselves dealing with passengers leaning across strangers, swapping seats, blocking the aisle or holding phones and cameras against the windows in pursuit of the perfect shot.
Passengers should also remember that a scheduled flight is not an eclipse chase. Its route, altitude, timing and heading can all change because of weather, air traffic control or operational requirements. Even if the aircraft enters the eclipse path, the Sun may be on the opposite side of the cabin or too high, too low or too far behind the wing to see comfortably.
In other words, “But I booked a window seat” is unlikely to persuade the captain to orbit Spain.
Iberia Takes an A321XLR Into Totality
Several operators have, however, planned flights specifically around today’s event.
The most ambitious airline operation is Iberia’s special flight IB1473, named for the year astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was born. An Airbus A321XLR is due to leave Madrid-Barajas at 1845 local time, climb above 33,000ft and follow a specially calculated route over Palencia before returning to the Spanish capital.
The aircraft will carry scientists from the Shelios project, invited guests and media rather than fare-paying members of the public. Researchers plan to use it as a flying observatory to study the Sun’s corona above the clouds and much of the lower atmosphere.
Iberia also intends to livestream the eclipse from the aircraft using its onboard Starlink connection.
Captain Javier Lopera Alcalá will command the flight, assisted by First Officer Javier Meana Fernández, who also has training in astrophysics.
Sold-Out Eclipse Flights From Belgium
Brussels Airlines has teamed up with Urania Public Observatory, the University of Antwerp and Vrije Universiteit Brussel for a dedicated Airbus A320 flight towards Nantes in western France.
The two-hour trip is expected to give 100 passengers a view of a deep partial eclipse from above the clouds. Aisle seats have deliberately been left empty to provide more space, while eclipse glasses and guidance from astronomy experts are included. Tickets cost €299 and the flight sold out.
The Brussels Airlines eclipse flight is scheduled to depart at 1920 local time, reach maximum eclipse at around 2021 and return to Brussels at approximately 2120.
Urania and Belgian private aviation company ASL Group have organised a second, more exclusive trip from Liège. Operated by ASL subsidiary ACE using an Embraer ERJ135, the flight has been limited to 30 passengers and will also head towards Nantes, where solar obscuration is expected to reach around 96%.
Its €799 fare includes eclipse glasses, an astronomer-led briefing, snacks and an open bar. It is also fully booked.
In the UK, Air Charter Service has taken a different approach. Its same-day charter from London Stansted is not intended to watch the eclipse from the air.
Instead, passengers are being flown to whichever of Valladolid, the Balearic Islands or Keflavík offers the most promising forecast, before travelling by coach to an approved viewing site on the ground. The £899 package includes both flights, transfers, meals and drinks, with the final destination selected close to departure.
Does an Eclipse Change How Aircraft Operate?
For normal airline operations, an eclipse is an unusual visual event rather than an aviation emergency. Spain’s aviation safety agency, AESA, has nevertheless warned pilots and operators to plan for the sudden reduction in ambient light, contrast and temperature.
Its operational guidance says VFR pilots should consider the rapidly changing visual conditions, especially at low level where cables and other obstacles may become harder to detect.
The eclipse does not legally turn a daytime flight into a night flight, so published sunrise, sunset and civil-twilight times remain unchanged.
AESA has also told pilots not to wear eclipse glasses while operating an aircraft because the filters would dangerously restrict their view of everything else outside.
From Concorde to ‘Cosmic Cocktails’
Using aircraft to chase eclipses is far from new — and no flight has yet matched Concorde 001’s record-breaking mission on June 30, 1973.
The prototype, F-WTSS, was fitted with special roof-mounted observation windows and scientific equipment before taking off from Las Palmas. Flying at around Mach 2 and 58,000ft, it intercepted the Moon’s shadow over Mauritania and raced across Africa inside totality for an extraordinary 74 minutes.
A paper published in Nature later documented the flight, which remains the longest continuous observation of a total solar eclipse.
When totality returned to Europe on August 11, 1999, two British Airways Concordes and one Air France aircraft carried paying eclipse chasers.
Air France flight AF4500 banked and turned so passengers on both sides could see the phenomenon, remaining in the Moon’s shadow for more than five minutes. Air France later described the reaction among passengers and crew as one of awe and emotion.
More conventional airliners have since joined the chase. In March 2016, astronomer Joe Rao noticed that Alaska Airlines flight 870 from Anchorage to Honolulu would cross the path of totality over the Pacific — but 25 minutes too early.
The airline agreed to delay its departure, allowing the 181 people aboard to see the Sun disappear for almost two minutes. Alaska called it a precisely planned rendezvous rather than luck.
The carrier followed that success with an invitation-only eclipse charter from Portland in 2017. Southwest Airlines also identified five scheduled flights likely to offer particularly good views during that year’s Great American Eclipse, equipping passengers with viewing glasses and tasking its cabin crew with serving “cosmic cocktails”.
Delta Air Lines went further for the April 2024 eclipse, selling out two specially planned services from Austin and Dallas/Fort Worth to Detroit.
Yet the Dallas flight also demonstrated why no airline can guarantee a celestial appointment: air traffic control rejected some of the crew’s requested manoeuvres, and many passengers saw only a sliver of totality.
The Moon may run precisely to schedule. Commercial aviation does not always have that luxury.
“Your Attention Please!”
For cabin crew working through this evening’s eclipse, the event could be spectacular, memorable and — depending on the behaviour of the self-loading freight — mildly chaotic.
Those onboard dedicated flights will have experts, planned viewing procedures and proper eye protection. Everyone else should follow crew instructions, keep aisles and exits clear and remember that a plane window, a pair of sunglasses and an iPhone do not constitute a solar observatory.
So, if the cabin crew make the announcement — “Ladies and gentlemen, please stop looking directly at the Sun” — please listen. They really should not have to explain this one twice.
© Confessions of a Trolley Dolly