27/08/2026
84 Seconds of Darkness
At 8:31pm on August 12, Mike Brewer flew a wingsuit across the Balcón de la Muela ridgeline near Alarilla, Spain, travelling at more than 240km/h and at times just 4.5 metres above the terrain. Nearly 1.5 kilometres away, photographer Noah Wetzel waited for Brewer to cross a tiny section of sky directly in front of a total solar eclipse.
There was no second attempt. Totality lasted just 84 seconds, during which Brewer had to hit a precise flight line while Wetzel triggered four remote flashes and captured him between the camera and the blacked-out sun. Nine months and around 600 hours of preparation came down to less than a tenth of a second.
“This is something that had never been tried,” Brewer said. “There were infinite ways it could fail, and we only got one chance.”
At 240km/h Brewer was covering around 67 metres every second while flying close to the mountainous plateau in rapidly fading light. Wetzel was positioned approximately 1,400 metres away, with four wireless flashes installed beneath the flight line to illuminate Brewer and freeze his movement against the eclipse. The system effectively gave him only two frames as Brewer crossed the critical point.
Four test productions were completed before Spain, including a predawn simulation in Moab, Utah, where the team crossed a river by raft and hauled hundreds of kilograms of photographic equipment up a mountain in darkness. Spanish wingsuit pilot Dani Román also helped the team understand the Alarilla terrain and establish the flight possibilities.
When the eclipse arrived, radio communications connected the team as Brewer committed to the line. Wetzel tracked the calculated section of sky, triggered the flashes and fired two frames as Brewer crossed the eclipse.
Brewer didn't know they had succeeded until after deploying his parachute. “The feeling of opening my parachute knowing we got the shot was one of the most powerful in my flying career,” he said.
It was nine months of calculations, training and testing reduced to two frames, with a wingsuit travelling at 240km/h and just 84 seconds of darkness to make it work.
