Aviation Ping!....................
He’s an idiot. He could have hit any one of the millions of Chinese weather balloons innocently floating off course.
COOL!
I was on an air canada red eye flight from LA to Toronto in 1997. There were less than 20 people on the plane. About halfway through the flight, the pilot came on and made an offer. If everyone moved to the left windows on the plane and buckled in, he would roll the so we could see the comet ( Hale -Bopp) and take pictures if we wanted to. Everyone moved over, the stewardesses checked that we were buckled in, and he banked to about 30 degrees or so. It was incredible, The comet was so bright and with the tail it seemed to take up about a quarter of the sky and he flew this way for about 20 minutes, as we watched the comet from 36,000 ft. Then he rolled back level, and we returned to our seats. We all thanked the crew on the way out for the incredible show.I didn’t have a camera on me, but the memory is still vivid. The good old days, when Pilot’s weren’t locked up in the cockpit, and stewardesses were proud of the name. Air Canada got 3 A’s that flight.
I was flying from Anchorage to Barrow one night while the Hale Bop comet was very visible to the west. That night there was also an amazing curtain of green and ruby-colored aurora to the west. Our pilot turned off ALL plane lights for about a minute so we could better see the amazing combination.
My best airliner view experience was to watch a space shuttle launch from 30,000 feet. We just happened to be flying by it at T-minus-zero.
I saw a jet do a 360-degree loop in the sky some years back. It’s near-circular contrail hung in the sky for some minutes.
I asked a pilot acquaintance about it, and he said it is sometimes done if the flight is ahead of schedule for its destination.
I’d gladly accept a 10 minute delay for that.
I’m sure EasyJet welcomes the extra $5k of fuel that took.
Just a cheap, not quite free, advertising ploy be easyJet
He will probably get charged for the extra fuel spent.
Very cool. Southwest used to be like this, but times have changed.
My two favorite airline departures are leaving Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Newark, NJ.
Jackson Hole has a special departure which can only be described as a reverse corkscrew from the surface to about 20’000 feet, all within a five mile radius of the airport. I’d swear that the pilot of the American Airlines MD-80 had the plane flying straight up until cruising altitude. He came on the PA system afterwards and told us how lucky we were to live in such beautiful country.
As for EWR, apparently there is a VFR departure which involves flying up the East River at a very low altitude. We were on a nighttime flight to Providence many years ago, and it was spectacular to look UP at the skyscrapers as we headed home.
As a kid in northern Michigan, we used to see the northern lights quite frequently. We’d lay out on the ground and watch the show. There was virtually no light pollution where we were and it really was breathtaking...
Had a commercial airline pilot bank and do a 360 over the Grand Canyon so everyone on the plane could get a cool view!
Worth the cost of admission
Why is this news?