Threading the celestial needle: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 feet
There’s nothing Alaska Airlines pilots like more than a challenge. As a company that started out flying between remote airfields deep in the Alaskan “bush,” safely navigating where other airlines can’t is in Alaska’s blood. So, for Alaska, putting a flight in the path of the Great American Eclipse wasn’t really a question of if,…
Calling all eclipse chasers: Enter to win and prepare for the “Great American Eclipse”
Not since 1918 has a total eclipse of the sun crossed the continental United States. But on August 21, 2017 history will again be made when a total solar eclipse is set to travel coast-to-coast for the first time in nearly 100 years. An estimated 12 million people live in the path of totality, with…
Chasing the shadow of the moon: To intercept eclipse, Alaska Airlines adjusts flight plan to delight astronomers
There’s no luck in physics. When the sun and the moon and the Earth aligned this week, an Alaska Airlines jet was in the right place at the right time to catch the total solar eclipse. The March 8 rendezvous over the Pacific Ocean was not luck, but a precisely planned equation. The calculations began a year…