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Alaska Airlines Diverts Flight So Passengers Can View Eclipse and More News

The top Seattle news stories you should be reading today

By Mike Pearce March 11, 2016

Alaska airlines flight 770 intercepting an eclipse.

Earlier this week on March 9, parts of the world were treated to a total solar eclipse. This rare event occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the Earth. This type of eclipse lasts only for the brief time in which the two bodies are aligned, and it’s that same alignment that determines whether us Earth-dwellers see a partial or total eclipse. This eclipse first became visible in the Indian Ocean and then moved its way across Indonesia, Australia and various Pacific islands.

However, Joe Rao, an associate astronomer at the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium, was still able to catch it. How? Eclipses and other astronomic events can be charted accurately many years in advance, and because of that, Rao knew that the eclipse would be visible over the ocean between Hawaii and Alaska (see the above image). Then the question became, how exactly would he get himself over the middle of the Pacific Ocean in the right spot, at precisely the right time? In a plane, of course.

Mr. Rao did some research and found that Alaska Airlines flight 870 from Anchorage to Honolulu had nearly the proper flight path, but would’ve crossed over the designated area 25 minutes too soon. Rao put in a call to Alaska Airlines. According to the Alaska Air Blog, Chase Craig, Alaska’s director of brand experience, and Alaska’s fleet director, Captain Brian Holm, together were prepared to move heaven and Earth (pun intended) to ensure Flight 870 took the proper route at the proper time.

Mike Kentrianakis, solar eclipse project manager for the American Astronomical Society and in seat 6F on the flight said to Alaska, “that’s customer service at its best. It’s become personal.”

This week, Un Bien announced plans to move into the old Paseo location near Golden Gardens, according to The Seattle Times. The irony? Un Bien is owned and operated by the sons of the original Paseo owner. Locations aside, the debate over which Cuban sandwich is best rages on.

Bellevue has been voted among the top 10 downtowns in the U.S. by Livability.com. The site, which has previously tapped Bellevue as one of the top 10 best places to live in America as well, pointed to the Seattle suburb’s thriving economic growth, great restaurants, retail and more as reasons for its high praise.

Wide receiver Jermaine Kearse will remain in Seattle. Kearse and the Seahawks struck a new three-year deal. Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network reports that this new contract is worth $13.5 million, putting it nearly on par with the deal given to Doug Baldwin two years ago.

On March 7, Governor Jay Inslee threatened not to sign any bills if the state budget wasn’t passed on time. Late last night on March 10, he made good on that threat. “I have begun vetoing bills. Tonight I vetoed 27 bills,” said Governor Inslee. According to the man himself, that’s the largest batch of vetoes in state history. 

 

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