Eclipse chasers

On 8 April, North America witnessed its first total eclipse since 2017 and, as is now tradition, airlines scheduled flights to allow passengers to take in an unobstructed view of the phenomenon. But making these flights work is a fiendish combination of astronomical calculation and aviation logistics, given that the 100-mile-wide shadow cast over Earth sprints across the ground at around 1,000 miles an hour. If that isn’t difficult enough, airlines must grapple with the usual challenges of delays, cancellations and unexpected weather events.

The challenge was especially difficult for Alaska Airlines chief dispatchers Ed Fischer and Eric Juchartz. Rather than schedule a bespoke eclipse service, they instead adapted the flight paths of two routes out of San Diego, including flight 322 to Dulles, Virginia. “We had a small window of time to make this all work, especially for full totality that everyone wanted to see – you want to watch the full eclipse, not the partial,” says Juchartz.