A video showing a rare view over Mount Everest—the world's tallest mountain in the Himalayas of Nepal and Tibet—from a plane has gone viral on Instagram.
The spectacular sight was shared in a viral video by @theworldpursuit, the Instagram account of full-time travel bloggers Cameron Seagle and Natasha Alden. The couple in their early 30s are based in the Canadian Rockies, in Canmore in the province of Alberta, and run The World Pursuit travel website.
The footage was captured on a flight with Bhutan Airlines from Kathmandu in Nepal to Paro in Bhutan on October 15, 2023. Seagle told Newsweek: "The flight was a surreal experience that we had no idea would happen until we got on the plane."
The video has had 7 million views since it was first shared on Instagram in late October. A message overlaid on the clip reads: "When your plane casually passes by Mount Everest."
The footage shows a window seat view of a plane wing floating just above the vast backdrop of the snowy peaks of Mount Everest under a bright blue sky.
The couple were treated to truly a unique view that not even climbers of Mount Everest can fully take in from the top of the mountain, which stands at around 29,028 feet high (8,848 meters).
There are 14 mountain peaks on Earth that stand taller than 26,247 feet (8,000 meters) and the tallest of these "eight-thousanders" is Mount Everest.
Glaciers have shaped Mount Everest's summit into a huge, triangular pyramid defined by three faces and three ridges extending to the northeast, southeast and northwest.
Its southeastern ridge—the one that Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay followed in May 1953, making them the first climbers to reach the summit and return safely—is the most widely used climbing route.
'The Most Scenic Flight in the World'
A caption shared with the viral Instagram post reads: "The flight from Kathmandu to Paro (Bhutan) is the most scenic flight in the world. This is one of the only flight routes where you can see the tallest mountain in the world right from your window seat..."
Seagle told Newsweek: "We were seated on the left-hand side of the plane, and yes, the pilot announced the mountain names on the PA [public announcement system] as we passed various peaks, including Everest."
Other mountains that could be seen enroute included several of the world's other highest mountains around Nepal and Tibet, including Makalu, Lhotse, Cho Oyu, Kangchenjunga and Manaslu, as well as Jomolhari, which straddles the border between China's Tibet region and Bhutan, Seagle said.
"The experience of witnessing the mountain peaks from our airplane window was humbling, fascinating, and surreal. It was shocking because we had failed to research the route and had yet to learn we would see Everest and various eight-thousanders en route," he added.
Users on Instagram were blown away by the incredible view in the latest viral video.
User thejoyfulexplorers said: "Ohhhh my goodness this is EPIC."
User profitsandpoints wrote: "Whoa incredible! So lucky to have a window seat for this one!"
User topmost_videos added: "These scenes are simply stunning..."
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Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Soo Kim is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. She covers various lifestyle stories, specializing in travel and health.
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