Passengers on plane see incredible light show as it flies through Southern Lights

Passengers on a Boeing 767 from New Zealand saw a view of the ‘southern lights’ no one had ever seen before – on the first charter flight booked to fly into the light display.

The 134 passengers on the sold-out flight were treated to an incredible display of light at the edge of space after the plane took off from Dunedin.

Organiser and Otago Museum Director Ian Griffin said, ‘I thought it was absolutely brilliant. We were right under it. There were beautiful streamers, auroral streamers.

MORE: The Daily Mail’s ‘Legs-it’ front page has made just about everyone angry

MORE: Woman labelled ‘weird freak’ on receipt for ordering child-sized omelette for her child

‘This green-colored stuff that moves quickly, it looks like you’re looking into a green, streaky river.’

Passenger Nick Wong said, ‘I didn’t think we would actually see such a spectacular display, even by the naked eye.’

The southern lights – or aurora australis – are ‘unpredictable displays of light in the night sky’ and can be seen in the southern hemisphere.

NASA says, ‘While usually a milky greenish color, auroras can also show red, blue, violet, pink and white. The colors appear in a variety of continuously changing shapes.

‘Sometimes the aurora is so dim and scattered as to be mistaken for clouds or the Milky Way; sometimes it is bright enough to read by.’