Enthusiasts hope weather doesn’t play spoilsport

“We have a group of six people,who are flying to Surat early morning tomorrow. They will chase the eclipse to Indore,” said Arun Lohia,CEO,Bafna Air,a private air charter company. Lohia said it could be difficult to take off or land owing to bad weather conditions in Mumbai and a high tide warning.

However,Lohia’s private charter company has already chartered out a Beechcraft Super King Air 200 twin-turboprop,which has a capacity of carrying up to eight passengers and has a range of 1700 nautical miles. The helicopter will head for Surat from Mumbai. Then,it will chase the eclipse till Indore and fly back to Mumbai. While the eclipse can be viewed in its totality in Surat,the total journey time will span over four hours at a cost of Rs 50,000 per hour apart from taxes. “We could have planned a trip to Patna. But refuelling is a problem,” said Lohia.

Private tour operator,Cox & Kings,has also arranged a special charted flight from Delhi to ferry enthusiasts to Gaya in Bihar to witness the eclipse. While there are 42 enthusiasts on the charted Jet Airways flight,according to a Cox & Kings spokesperson,as many as five of them are from Mumbai.

“We have chartered a Boeing 737-700 from Jet Airways and will take off from Delhi at 4.30 am. The flight will intercept the eclipse at 6.26 am over Gaya,” he said. The Cox & Kings has sold seats inside the aircraft under two categories. While a ‘sunside seat’ has been sold for Rs 79,000,an ‘earth-side’ seat has been sold for Rs 29,000.