Thanks to the international date line, there are always some interesting things for people crossing it. This last Saturday night, it meant that some passengers were able to actually celebrate the entrance of 2023 two times!
Passengers Got to Ring in the New Year Twice
The international date line sits out in the Pacific Ocean, at 180 degrees east (or west). It isn’t a straight line due to its curving around various landmasses. When you travel across it from the US, for example, you will lose a day. When you travel back across it to the US, you gain a day.
This means that some passengers, like this flight that had mechanical difficulties, missed out on New Year’s Eve altogether. Then, there are other flights that actually allow passengers two opportunities to welcome the new year.
The flight in this post was United Airlines 858 from Seoul, South Korea to San Francisco, California. This flight departed at 12:29AM on January 1. This meant that the passengers were likely in the process of boarding when it became 2023. But, they landed in San Francisco at 5:01PM on December 31. This meant, for any locals onboard, they were actually able to get home to friends and family to celebrate the coming New Year – again!
Here is the link to the Flightradar24 page to show you details on this flight. There are always passengers that seek out such flights for the novelty that such a flight exhibits.
This flight isn’t by itself but was an interesting one that I saw while looking at the various flights flying on New Year’s Eve (yes, that is something that some of us do for fun sometimes!). Of course, if you wanted an even more unique experience, you could always take a flight to the South Pole for a cool $54,000 and run around all the time zones in less than a minute!
