Delta eclipse flight from Dallas veered off path of totality

The flight was slightly off-set from the path of totality, Delta said, as air traffic control managed severe congestion and a flood of special maneuver requests along the path of the eclipse. While another Delta flight from Austin was permitted to climb to the right altitude to complete a maneuver called an S-curve, the airline said the Dallas flight was not.

The Federal Aviation Administration did not comment on the Delta flight’s path specifically, but said that the agency was focused on safety as jets and noncommercial planes filled the air to view the eclipse above the clouds. The FAA had previously warned about congestion and possible impacts to air traffic.

“Our first goal and our top priority is always the safety of flights,” said FAA spokesman Chris Mullooly. “We knew that there were going to be possible impacts to some of the traffic.”

Instead of its planned maneuvers, Delta’s Airbus A321neo flew in a circle to give both sides a look from 33,000 feet. But passengers didn’t get the view they expected.

“I kind of immediately suspected the positioning was off,” said passenger Dimitrije Ratkov, who raised the possibility the flight missed totality to The Post on Thursday. “I knew something had gone wrong, but wasn’t sure what.”

Delta had warned about such a possibility, even as passengers paid more than $1,000 in some cases for a seat. For both the Dallas and Austin flights, the airline included this disclaimer: “While Delta flight plans have been designed to maximize time within the path of totality, this is subject to change due to factors outside of Delta’s control such as weather and air traffic control that could impact timing and aircraft.”

On board flight 1010, passengers — including this reporter, who paid nearly $850 for a refundable ticket — craned their necks to catch a glimpse of the sun. “Can you see it?” turned into “Did you see it?” as the plane turned. The sky and ground grew darker, but glimpses of the sun were brief.

Several people captured photos of the sun partially blocked by the moon, later showing off thumbnails of glowing orange. They chalked the difficulty up to the tricky angle of the sun high above, speed of the plane and confines of the aircraft.

While the flight was full of media, the movement outside the prime eclipse path was not discovered until Ratkov, a PhD student in virology at Mayo Clinic, compared the path of the flight to that of the eclipse using a flight-tracking site and NASA’s eclipse map. He posted his videos on YouTube and sent emails to reporters with the subject line: “Dallas Eclipse Flight Made Wrong Turn and Exited Path of Totality.”

Delta did not confirm the accuracy of Ratkov’s video, but acknowledged after looking into questions from The Post…