Thank you simonwc for contacting them.
Airline pilot here. Delta technically isn't lying in that email...of course ATC would've instructed the turn after 1010 *requested* the turn, as our pilot stated. And yes, the pilot doesn't plan the route, the dispatcher does. The route the dispatcher planned was a good route, inside of totality until descent.
ZACHH4 BSKAT LIT J131 PXV WWODD HANBL3, this is what it looks like:
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...393fc7490f.png
Another reason they wouldn't have pre-planned the loop is because where totality catches up to us depended on the exact groundspeed (headwind/tailwind) and wheels up time. (Also, I'm not a dispatcher but talked to a lot of them, I don't think they can even plan a loop like that, since it doesn't involve waypoints. It appears the right loop was done using heading selector 090, then another right turn to 310).

Regarding the flightaware dotted line: they don't reflect the planned route after the flight. With flights I've flown where I deviated/gotten vectors (more on deviations in a bit) off the planned route, flightaware always draws a dotted line to match at random times with what clearly wasn't the planned route. Here's an extreme example, obviously we know that AS1282 (the door blowout 737MAX9) was planned to fly PDX-ONT, but here's the dotted line after:
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...fdfc5de855.png
Regarding vectoring & deviations: never in my thousands of hours have I been suddenly given a vector like this this far out in cruise, I mean anything's possible I assume. The only time I've been suddenly vectored close to 90 degrees is nearing an airport that has extreme arrival congestion (looking at you SFO!). This wasn't what happened here. And we know that since the pilot PA'd us saying in "4 or 5 minutes" he's going to ask for the turn. Now, about pilot requested turns: the vast majority of the time they are granted. You can either ask for a heading, or "deviations left or right off course". In normal ops, this is usually for weather (none in that area on 4/8). There's no restricted airspace in that area, & no traffic conflicts a FL330 that would've prevented going according to planned routing (or a left turn). I assume had he either asked for a left or right turn it would've been granted. I still haven't found the liveatc archive (someone said in that sector, the audio from 1847-1859 got trimmed?!).

My guess & simplest explanation is that the pilot thought we were near center of the path. Then they figured the Sun was closer to the right (at 090 heading, the Sun would've been way behind the plane, but just slightly biased to the right) so they decided that would be the direction of the 1st turn. Of course, had they looked at the ground they would've seen a massive shadow approaching on the left, with normal daylight on the right.

Thanks so much for the thorough and detailed analysis, Eclipse2026! This is super helpful. Maybe let me try to summarize it from a layman's perspective. Essentially, Delta has planned a good and ATC-approved fly route (along the southern/east-side bound edge of the path of totality) that would allow all DL1010 passengers to experience totality when it catches up to the plane around the Jonestown area.

What went wrong is that it is still up to the DL1010's pilot decision to request and execute the proper maneuver at the moment of totality to maximize the passengers' time and viewing experience within the path of totality. The pilot made the decision to fly right, which flew the plane out of the path of totality. Instead, a more proper execution of the goal of maximizing the passengers' totality solar eclipse experience should have been to continue fly in a straight line within the path or make a left turn and then continue to wiggle around within the path (similar to what DL1218 did). There was no evidence to show that DL1010's pilot decision was affected by factors outside of Delta’s control, such as weather and air traffic control.

Would that be a correct layman understanding of the situation?

it seems correct in that you seem to be singularly focused on blaming DL, rather than acknowledging that there were/are a number of factors in play with respect to safely getting a jet to a particular point along a particular flight path at a particular instant, and that humans make decisions -- including their inputs to systems that also make decisions -- that aren't always 100% accurate or that always have results that meet everyone's expectations

Not specific against and blaming Delta. I think what Eclipse2026 and GLPCS are trying to get down to the truth of the major root causes as of why it had happened the way it did for DL1010 on April 8th. I am just trying to summarize Eclipse2026's findings against Delta's response.

So is there any evidence that shows Delta can't make a left turn or straight line safely at the moment of the totality intersection? I even inquired to Delta and I posted Delta's response. It is up to Delta to provide a detailed explanation as to the major root causes of why they made the right circular turn decision to fly out of the totality path.

That would be saying if a gunman murdered another in a school setting and the gunman has mental illness that might have caused the mass shooting; and then state that it is not the gunman's fault as there are many other factors in his life that caused his action, and therefore he should be acquitted of murder? That logic doesn't sound right. That would be a scary world to live in when everything that went wrong can be diluted by non-major root causes as an excuse to get away from accountability. (I don't think our pilot intentionally decided to screw our experience but, still, after reading through all sides, I definitely felt, as insofar, the pilot had done a wrong turn decision and he could have delivered a far better solar eclipse totality experience for the passengers in DL1010 based on what I've read from both sides up to this point.)

Anyway, I directed Delta customer service and their team to this thread so they could read through it and provide their side of the explanation. I am sure the truth will eventually surface, and we can all decide our individual judgement based on their side of the explanation there as well.

Yes, simonwc, that about sums it up perfectly, IMO.
jrl767, you are right - there are many factors outside of DL's control - factors that I was worried about for days prior. Ex: earlier model runs showed severe weather in the DFW area (as 4/8 got closer the severe weather was pushed back, thankfully). The saddest part about this flight was that ALL of these factors did go perfectly. The weather turned out great (few high cirrus in the climb, that was it), the airplane was perfect, on time departure, , etc. It was just this one (pilot requested) turn that caused everyone to miss it. I appreciate what DL did, not even upset at them, but out of all the meticulous preparations from snacks to plane tags, I wish there was something that told the pilot (even just a printed paper map of totality path, I had it on my charts) he was on the southern edge. The turn is not something that needed to be timed perfectly - again if he did nothing (that is, not request the turn) we would've all been under totality a minute later. It's also not a narrow path, 115 miles - much wider than the previous eclipse that I flew into. at the start of the right turn, he had 10 miles to his right (60 seconds of flying), and a whopping 105 miles to his left (13 minutes of flying). Had the first turn been a left turn, we could've done all sorts of maneuvering inside totality.

Then he said, "we were in totality for 3 minutes"?! I give him the benefit of doubt, he may have actually thought that was totality if he never seen one. When I flew into the previous totality, I was wondering too if this slight darkening was it - until everything suddenly went BLACK. Here's what it's like from the wing view:

3min prior: Shadow approaches, wing still white, Sun still blinding, need glasses
1min prior: Shadow covers half the horizon, wing turns a bit gray, Sun still blinding, need glasses <- this is as far as we got
10sec prior: Shadow covers almost all of horizon, wing turns orange, Sun then suddenly becomes Diamond Ring, Bailey's Beads
Totality: Shadow surrounds you, wing turns black, Sun blackened by the Moon is naked eye with prominence visible

And that's what makes what happened extra devastating: now there's 200 people that have a wrong impression of a total eclipse. (& 130 people on DL1218 that have the correct, awe-inspiring impression). Many of us will now become the people that say, "what's so impressive about an eclipse? it's just a slight darkening of the sky, just go somewhere rainy!". If an airline, including Delta, offers such an experience again, I'd take it in a heartbeat. Having experienced a total eclipse from both ground and sky (one that didn't turn outside of totality at literally the last minute), the one in the sky was better IMO.

I fully and totally agree that seeing a total solar eclipse from the air is a remarkable experience -- Posts 112 and 114 here -- and I completely understand that a lot of people are disappointed that the reality of their viewing experience didn't materialize to match the anticipation

I guess I'm just a curmudgeon who has a philosophical problem with hyperbole (words like "devastating"), use of false-equivalence similes (like a gunman's mental health), and people who gloss over DL's own words (in their reply to simonwc, viz., "... we could not make any guarantee that a passenger would have a particular view of the eclipse for any length of time.") yet still persist in repetitive "coulda-woulda-shoulda" finger-pointing (to say nothing of inquiring about compensation and noodling about class-action suits :rolleyes:)

Unfortunately, Delta has done a tons of media marketing to hype up the events.

What they did can go both ways in terms of risks and rrewards. If both flights are widely successful, everyone is happy and they reap a gigantic rewards (media, fianncially, etc). But the risks of going south is otherwise.

But they decided not be low key for its solar eclipse flight - very much unlike to Southwest, Alaska, United, Jetblue are doing for thier solar eclipse flights. And on top, Delta charge multiple x price premium for its solar eclipse flight along with its marketign hype, I think it is reasonable that it induced the increased anticipation and expectation.

let's see what Delta would response to simonwc after they read through Eclipse2026's finding. I really hope that they can explain the behind the scene of what had happened so we can better understand their side instead of just blindly defending them.

Simonwc, I sent you a DM. Would like to know your full day experience on April 8th.

That's amazing, jrl767. It sounds like you have tons of piloting experience and have seen totality from a plane in the past. So awesome. I might have used an extreme similes example, perhaps, but I wanted to make my point clear; so I respect your opinion and I understand. My point was to get both sides to share the details to see what the major root-causes were. There are a lot of disappointment for DL1010. One fellow passenger I had talked to spent almost a month of his earning for this special journey and flight moment. Another person was her planning to celebrate her birthday on that flight with the totality view. There were a lot of different human experiences and emotions that didn't match the anticipation. So it is worthwhile to find the truth.

I got your message, Glpcs. I don't want to just privately share the Delta's response to you, I will post those out here when I get one. I just sent you back my rest of the day experience.

Eclipse2026, after reading through your last paragraph, you reignited my hope that a flight viewing experience of totality solar eclipse in 2026 would be worth a trip to Spain. Thanks for sharing.

This is what irks me: Delta hypes up these flights and charges premiums for what is nothing more than a plane flight, taking advantage of nature to make more money; and when something goes wrong, they're essentially "too bad for you, see you again!"

Bad show, Delta. Bad show.

Everyone on 2024-04-08 DL1010 should be given a free AB/HJ seat on a transatlantic flight to FCO/ATH/TLV departing ATL/JFK on 2027-08-01 to coincide the umbra over the Mediterranean.

I feel so terrible for the passengers on DL1010. It seems clear that the pilot made a mistake but for Delta to admit that rather than blame it on ATC spells legal liability for Delta.

i do believe that Delta should fully account for their pilot’s actions.

Delta should not have charged for these flights. Instead, they should have done a drawing or offered them to 360 members, a high school science class, or families through Make a Wish or something similar. This would have been even better PR, and it also would have prevented much of the blowback when things did not turn out as planned.

Has anyone been able to find the ATC recording from that time? I know it was previously mentioned that specific timing was not on the Live ATC website.

Also, WaPo has an article about this now: https://www.washingtonpost.com/trave...h-of-totality/

DL offering eclipse-specific flights that weren't actually able to view the eclipse would certainly seem like false advertising, even if there was a disclaimer.