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Seeing Everest From a Commercial Airliner

PostPosted: Fri Dec 27, 2013 10:39 pm
by wasclywabbit
I may be going to the Philippines in a couple of months and interestingly enough one of my routing options is Denver-Frankfurt-Bangkok-Manilla. While I wouldn't normally take that routing due to length, it appears that the Frankfurt - Bangkok leg could travel very close to Mt. Everest. Since my odds of getting to Nepal anytime soon are slim I'd like to at least get a chance to see the beast, even if it is from 39K feet. Has anyone flown this route and does it pass close by Everest as it appears to do based on great circle routing?

Are there any other airline routes that anyone has flown that give a great view of Everest? Doubtful that they would work for this upcoming trip but how about K2?

Thanks.

Re: Seeing Everest From a Commercial Airliner

PostPosted: Sun Dec 29, 2013 11:26 am
by Tools_Incoming
I don't know about the route you just specified, but I was able to see K2 on a flight a few years back.

Coming out of Islamabad, I was flying British Airways to London. There was something weird with the airspace and deconfliction at take off, so the flight was routed a bit further east than normal. As the plan was making a banking turn (that, in my experience, was a bit steeper than normal), I saw an absolutely magnificent sight out the left side of the plane. We were looking right out at K2 and other local peaks. It was such a view that people on the other side of the plan got up and came over to our side to view out the windows.

I actually note this particular event as one of the two moments when I decided I wanted to climb. Up until this point I'd never seen anything like that view, I was fascinated and really wanted to be on the ground looking up at that sight, instead of above it (or level to it) looking at it.

Re: Seeing Everest From a Commercial Airliner

PostPosted: Wed Jan 01, 2014 5:30 am
by wasclywabbit
Very Cool. Unfortunately I don't think that Islamabad will work for this flight but that's great information to know for the future.

Re: Seeing Everest From a Commercial Airliner

PostPosted: Wed Jan 01, 2014 5:40 am
by Andrew Rankine
Take a look at your itinerary and flights, and put the options into flightaware.com

This will show you the flightplan on a map of any flight you want to look at. You can also use the 'nearby' feature to look at current flights in that area. Their forum probably has a lot more people that could answer your question as well.

Flightradar24.com and flightview.com are similar sites to check out.