LYNCHBURG, Va. – Some people traveling around the time of the eclipse got a chance to see it before boarding their plane.
There were lots of people traveling in and out of Lynchburg Regional Airport on Monday. Airport officials estimated the daily average about 450 people were flying out for the day. They say the solar eclipse did not affect their daily operations other than that it was entertaining.
Travelers who spoke to WSLS 10's Magdala Louissaint; said someone had a pair of the solar glasses and everyone took turns borrowing the shades and ran outside to see it. One passenger traveling from Charlotte into Lynchburg said he experienced the same thing in North Carolina. He also said the airport down there did an announcement reminding travelers to not stare into the sun.
"When we were boarding our plane, they asked us to go out to the tarmac and load up outside. So walking out there was a lady with a pair of glasses she was letting people try on as they walked to the plane. So before I got on the plane I got a chance to look up. They said it was probably 80-85 percent maybe. And I think its peak was supposed to be 2:44, and I was out right around that time," Ian Mollick, traveling from Charlotte, said.
Like Lynchburg, Charlotte didn't experience the full totality of the eclipse. At Lynchburg Regional Airport they experienced flight delays, but none of them were related to the solar eclipse.