An Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 took four hours to fly from Oakland, California (OAK) to Los Angeles (LAX), a distance of only 337 miles. What made this journey take so long?
Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 Photoshoot In the Sky Between OAK – LAX
On October 10th, Alaska Airlines 9820 took off from Oakland bound for Los Angeles. One Twitter (X) user noticed it was taking a very strange flight path:
This Alaska Airlines flight 9820 from Oakland to Los Angeles is sure taking the long way. Anyone know why? pic.twitter.com/WuwtFjDEJK
— Shawn Garrett (@ShawnGarrett) October 10, 2023
The flight path got even weirder:
Update: What pic.twitter.com/DHu9sK79ru
— Shawn Garrett (@ShawnGarrett) October 11, 2023
Another person noticed that the 737 was being escorted by a “small private jet” and was puzzled:
@AlaskaAir today I saw an Alaska airlines plane that just took off from Oakland airport circling, while being escorted by a small private aircraft. What was going on do you have any info on that? A fighter jet flew over right before that so it was I
Just strange all around.— Diz Slau (@DizSlau) October 11, 2023
So what was going on here? Alaska Airlines does not even fly nonstop between Los Angeles and Oakland.
Per Alaska, the flight was not a passenger flight. It was a planned flight to capture air-to-air footage for future use by the airline.
Which explains the flight path…and also the small aircraft that escorted it.
Do you ever wonder how airlines create their stock photos and video? It’s often not computer-generated imagery (CGI). Rather, it is exactly a “chase plane” with cinema photography equipment onboard following a larger plane.
United even recently put out a video about it:
That certainly explains the odd flight pattern.
CONCLUSION
An Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 with a very odd flight path and escort raised some alarms, but the carrier has confirmed it was simply a photoshoot with its latest aircraft. Even in the era of CGI, airlines still create photoshoots in the air.
Chuck Norris was seen standing on each aircraft’s wing, doing the splits
I just found out someone has WAY too much time on their hands and maybe the worst “hobby” of all time. Give the dog some attention Shawn!
Grandpa forgot his meds again?!
Certainly an odd flight path, but I’m surprised that someone who is seemingly in to aviation doesn’t recognize AS9820 as a non-traditional flight number.
While the distance between origin and destination was 337 miles it most definitely traveled many more miles than that. Semantics matter
Interesting piece, Matt, also good supporting graphic. I’ll get back to you if I think of something ugly or snarky to say.