KLM pilots of an Airbus A330 en route to Miami saw the rocket launch off the coast of Florida and captured it on video.
KL627 departed Schiphol at 4:00pm on 15 January en route to the US. After about ten hours of flying, the aircraft, registered PH-AKF, approached the Miami airport. SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy this year for the U.S. Space Force’s first mission from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, the site where rockets are normally launched into space. KLM pilot Vincent Hoekveld filmed the event.
Pilot pictures from the cockpit
The images show the rocket in its final stages before entering orbit. Then the first stage separates and the second finally burns to propel the rocket to its final destination. ‘Once in a lifetime from the cockpit of my A330,’ wrote the KLM pilot. LinkedIn– Mail. Hogveld was late Simple flying Although the A330 and the missile may not appear to be very far from each other, it says there was a 1,100 kilometer drift between the two vehicles. At that time the KLM aircraft was flying at an altitude of about twelve kilometers. “At first glance I thought it was a sunset, but I soon realized that was not possible in that time and place, and I discovered that it was a launch.”
Delayed launch
The launch was initially planned a day earlier, but was postponed by a day due to operational reasons. Before the flight to Hoekveldt, Amsterdam, the pilots a Notam It was found that the missile could be launched while approaching Miami. Air traffic control informed pilots when crossing from Europe to America.
