I’ve been to two eclipses in the past. The first was in a very remote place, in the rice paddies near Palu, Indonesia, where I saw the reflection of the sun in the water of the rice fields, surrounded by local Indonesians.
The next year was in a more familiar place, Nebraska, where my family and I watched the eclipse together. The skies were crystal clear and we got to see full totality.
One thing that always intrigued me was seeing an eclipse from the sky. A charter flight for a solar eclipse typically costs thousands and way out of my budget, so I knew if I ever wanted to watch an eclipse from the sky, I’d have to be creative and do it on a commercial flight instead.
After a bit of searching, I found one flight that sat entirely within the totality zone, Madrid to Bilbao. I flew into Madrid the night before, and was in a constant state of checking and rechecking past flight timings.
If the flight went too early, we’d be descending into Bilbao while it was cloudy and might miss the full eclipse. Conversely, tool late and you’d miss the eclipse entirely. It was tricky, and a lot of eager anticipation went into maximizing the chance of actually seeing it.
Diamond in The Sky
After arriving Madrid airport, I helped myself to a portion of freshly sliced jamon and coffee, getting myself ready for what would either be a really cool event or a complete miss.
Thankfully boarding was smooth, with no delays. Surprisingly, there weren’t any eclipse chasers, and instead it was filled with passengers that had no idea this flight would have a view of the eclipse.
I’d bought eclipse glasses and a solar filter for my camera but that turned out to be unnecessary. The airline had a surprise of its own, as they handed out solar glasses to everybody on the flight and souvenir placards thanking us for being on the flight.
After a bit of a minor delay, we pushed back, with the eclipse already fully underway. While we were still on the ground taxiing and eagerly waiting for departure, you could already see the eclipse through the glasses.
Part of the anticipation was that if you were on the ground you know exactly when totality will hit. Going a few hundred miles an hour on a jet, you have no idea exactly where or where totality will happen.
About five to ten minutes before totality you could start to tell the light was getting dimmer. I’d sneak the occasional peek at the sun , and you could see the sky was noticeably dimmer.
The last thirty seconds were amazing, the sun just kept getting dimmer and dimmer until totality set in, almost like the rays of sunshine glistened and then disappeared into black. On the other side, you could see the shadow of the eclipse approaching fast.
When totality happened, the cabin was completely quiet. Very different from your typical eclipse, and it made for a very peaceful and serene moment for those lucky enough to see it.
From the plane, you can see both horizons at once, the shadow racing across, the sky changing colors as you pass through the zone of totality. It was breath taking.
Near the end the pilot did a quick turn, which lined us up right as the sun came back out. Interestingly the wing stayed completely pitch black until the plane tilted downwards.
As soon as it began, it was over, and we started descending into Bilbao almost immediately after, landing right on time, which meant I could catch my flight back to London.
When we landed, the captain said this had been one of his most memorable flights and the cabin broke into applause.
Overall it was absolutely incredible, and I feel incredibly lucky to have seen it. Easily the best minute and fifteen seconds in the air of I’ve experienced so far.
