Editor’s note: This story is part of The Dallas Morning News’ coverage of the 2024 total solar eclipse. For more, visit dallasnews.com/eclipse.
PITTSBURGH — Friends told Pittsburgh native Herman Hardy that he is “crazy” for chasing pictures across the world.
He spends “every dime he gets” from his retirement from the military living out the dreams he and his late wife had of traveling, he said. They had a pact. Whoever went first, the other had to “keep on going,” he said. She died about four years ago.
“I told my kids and my grandkids … ‘When I die, which everybody does, don’t come in the house cutting up the mattress because there ain’t gonna be no money there,’” Hardy said. “[I’m] saving no more money.”
The 72-year-old Vietnam War veteran and avid photographer has taken photos since he was about 13 years old. He snaps a picture of anything — sunsets, famous people and some of the world’s most unique once-in-a-lifetime destinations. He knew he needed to try for his own shot of the total solar eclipse on Monday.
He flew from Pittsburgh to Chicago to Dallas for a 12:40 p.m. Southwest Airlines flight out of Dallas Love Field at a cost of about $650.
Hardy is one of about 150 people on a historic Southwest Airlines flight that landed in Pittsburgh after following the path of the solar eclipse, including a few extra minutes of totality, from the skies. Travelers were given eclipse glasses and a keepsake keychain that read “I solarbrated at 35,000 feet,” branded under Southwest and Omni Hotels & Resorts, which held a sweepstakes for seats on the plane.
Along the flight, passengers were holding each other in their laps, kneeling in front of the window seats and using camera stands to catch a glimpse of the sky.
Travelers were moving throughout the cabin, sharing seats and talking about the experience along the way. One brought Moon Pies to share. Peering through the tiny airplane window of a Boeing 737-800 a small bright light could be seen as the clouds and skies around it darkened. The Federal Aviation Administration forecasted 47,137 flights to operate on Monday.
As the moon completely obscured the sun during the solar eclipse’s totality, the cabin lights were dimmed and the flight could’ve been mistaken for a night trip as the plane passed over the Western part of Kentucky.
“You have to see it, you have to see it,” one passenger yelled.
Flight attendants handed out drinks ahead of the eclipse, but some passengers didn’t drink their free beverages because they were too focused on getting a view of the phenomenon. Dallas-based Southwest offered passengers a free cocktail with an eclipse theme. Napkins read, “I got ‘mooned’ on a plane.”
Bonnie Shatun, a retired second-grade school teacher from California wore deep purple eyeliner and eye shadow. Eclipse colors, she said. The flight was a backup plan for eclipse viewing. Shatun and her husband, Alton Reed, booked a last-minute flight when seats opened up after they saw the weather in Dallas didn’t appear to be optimal.
“I love astronomy,” Shatun said. “This is just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
She was wearing an “Eclipse-O-Rama 2024″ T-shirt, a consolation prize she said after entering a contest to try to experience the eclipse with Bill Nye the Science Guy.
But she was disappointed by the flight in the end. It was very hard to see out the small windows, she said after the flight, and called it a “lesson learned.”
Southlake’s Mark and Sharon Nash, 61 and 63, read online about Southwest Airlines’ eclipse flights and booked their flight right away at the end of last year. At about $415 a ticket, the couple hoped for a fun experience, something neat they’ve never done before.
“I think it just makes it memorable,” Sharon said.
The couple is making a trip out of it and visiting a friend in Pittsburgh. They don’t typically travel out of Dallas Love Field since their home is closer to DFW International Airport, and they usually fly on American Airlines.
Later on during the flight, Mark called it a “bust,” saying the couple couldn’t see much from their window.
At least one passenger slept through the majority of the eclipse. Slumped in the back was Emory Brewster, 17, from Birmingham, Ala. His mother, Michelle Lovett, said he took a peak at the eclipse and then fell back asleep.
Upon landing in Pittsburgh, cheers and clapping erupted from the travelers on flight 1252.
Although it may not have been the easiest way to view a solar eclipse, it was an opportunity to try something new.
“The next one [over parts of North America and the United States] is 2044 — that’s going to be somewhere near our continent here,” Hardy said. “You can find the eclipse every year somewhere, just you know, can you get to it?”
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