January 12, 2015 7:57 AM EST
P assengers on a flight from New York to London last week got to their destination more than an hour early thanks to strong winds that helped their plane reach near-supersonic speed.
The British Airways flight made the trip in 5 hours and 16 minutes at ground speeds of up to 1,200 km/h (745 mph), CNN reports . The sonic barrier, or the speed of sound, is broken at 1,224 km/h (761 mph).
Not only was the unusually fast flight a boon for the passengers, but, according to a former British Airways Pilot, riding jet streams is fun for the pilots, too. “It’s just like surfing,” Alastair Rosenschein told the Telegraph .
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