Cox and Kings, Space organise passenger eclipse flight

Travel company Cox and Kings India and Space Technology and Education (p) Ltd, under the technical guidance of Eclipse Chasers Athenaeum, will be organising a passenger eclipse flight on July 22 to witness the eclipse on that day.

It is for the first time in India that a plane has been chartered to view the total eclipse from above the clouds, the company said.

A JetLite 737-700 has been especially chartered for this purpose and the eclipse flight will last for three hours and it will take-off from New Delhi at 4.30 am, fly towards and hold over Gaya till the eclipse time, the company added.

The aircraft will be intercepting the middle of the eclipse shadow at 6.26 am at a height of 41,000 feet, it added.

The cost per person for the entire flight would be Rs 79,000 for sun-side seats, Rs 67,000 for middle-seats, Rs 59,000 for aisle seats and Rs 29,000 for earth-side seats.

Those sitting along the sun-side seats will be able to photograph the eclipse while those on the earth-side seats will be able to photograph the lunar shadow moving over the earth cloud top, the release said. 

The eclipse is starting at sunrise near Surat in Gujarat.

The shadow of the moon is so large at this eclipse that even at sunrise the duration of totality is more than three minutes.

The shadow very quickly moves across the breadth of India towards Arunachal Pradesh and the shadow spans a third of the entire path in India, 900 kilometres out of 2,500-kilometres across entire India, the company said.