Originally Posted by OccasionalFlyerPerson

What's the most impressive or amazing thing people have seen from a plane?

My top three are:

Flying over the Australian Outback, on a clear sunny day. Not a sign of life, but tons of texture and landscape in the red desert. Big ravines, what looked like sand deltas or something. Almost a Martian landscape.

One evening as the sun was going down, I looked out at the right moment. It looked as if the plane was flying in the dark, but there was still light on the considerable cloud cover further down. It looked as if the plane was flying in space over the Earth down below.

Flying over Northern Iran. I've done this several times, and I like seeing all the small villages in the mountainous region, with small roads joining them. A lot of the villages are tiny, and there seems to be a village in most valleys.

I've never seen anything interesting over the ocean that I remember. Neither have I flown near or over an erupting volcano. Anyone?