DOZENS of eclipse tourists got the ultimate vantage point on the rare spectacle on Friday morning as they took to the sky in a one-off flight.
A total of 57 passengers boarded the Jet2 flight, chartered by Omega Holidays, and took off from Glasgow Airport at 7.30am to view the solar eclipse in cloud-free skies at 38,000ft over the North Atlantic.
The jet headed north to airspace over the Faroe Islands between Scotland and Iceland, where scientists and tourists had gathered to watch the total eclipse overhead.
The flight was one of a handful of special charters organised across Europe to give eclipse fans the opportunity to chase the "path of totality" - the 100 metre-wide shadow cast across the Earth as the moon passed in front of the sun.
This will be the last total eclipse in Northern Europe until 2026, and on board the Jet2.com flight passengers each had their own row of seats to ensure the best view possible.
Special glasses were provided to allow passengers to safely watch the eclipse, which lasted over two hours from start to finish.
Jet2.com pilot Captain Christopher Pollock said: "I can honestly say that was one of the most amazing flights of my life. What a special moment to witness and the view was just breathtaking. For the full impact of a total eclipse, you have to be inside the 'path of totality', which is quite narrow, but also fast-moving because the planet is rotating.
"So you really have to be in the right place at the right time to get the best view - and thanks to Omega Holidays we were. I'll definitely be putting my name down for any return flights in 11 years time."
Omega customers travelled from as far away as America to take the flight.
Talking about the experience, Gail Love who travelled from Kirkcaldy with sisters Joan and Francie Love, said: "As soon as I heard about it, I knew I wanted to be on it. It's a once in a lifetime experience - absolutely out of this world, wow, really over-whelming."
Tickets cost up to £1400 for the flights, with each passenger allocated their own row of seats to get the best view from the aeroplane windows.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article