Rick Citron, Bob Citron, Sergey Avdeev, Elena Kondakova, Fijian Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, Yuri Karash and Vladimir Titov waiting on the beach for a Mir flyby before their 2-plane expedition began.

Citron said that the Russian Progress supply vehicle put extra oomph into the deorbit maneuvers. That led to Mir blazing a trail down through the atmosphere at a much steeper angle than planned. Therefore, the final ocean drop zone was in a slightly different location, he said.

Expedition planes, Citron said, were likely some 300 miles (483 kilometers) from Mirs breakup, and at least 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) from the impact area.

Along with cosmonauts, Mirs design engineer, Leonid Gorshkov, was also part of the airborne expedition to observe Mirs burial at sea.

"We were the closest to the Mir splash[down] area of any humans on the planet. It was a very poignant experience," Citron said.

Blazing bits of Mir debris were seen and photographed by beachgoers in Nadi, Fiji.

However, this light show was not Mir itself, Citron said. "What they saw was just solar panels and light structures attached to Mir that came off soon after it reentered the atmosphere," he said.

Mir itself came down 2,000 miles (3,218 kilometers) southeast of Fiji, Citron said.

Meanwhile, hoping for a close encounter with station shrapnel that was headed for a plunge into the sea, Citrons two privately chartered turboprop planes loitered for tens of minutes in an over-the-ocean observation zone. Occupying the planes, over two-dozen passengers were at the ready, pressed up against aircraft windows.

Also, on the lead plane, upwards of one-half million dollars worth of photographic and science gear were primed to detail Mirs ditching.

Initially, several passengers thought they saw, and then imaged Mirs fireball of a fall.

But later analysis of video footage showed the object to be a bright planet. Because the aircraft from which the video was shot was turning and banking, the object -- actually the planet Jupiter -- appeared to be rapidly moving to the Mir watchers.

Smoke trails from Mir debris were also thought to have been video recorded. However, these turned out to be out-of-focus images and multiple reflections induced by the aircrafts Plexiglas windows.

"We gave it the best we could."

Citron said that neither plane got images of Mir. The lead plane saw nothing, while six minutes of video recorded from the second plane proved to be Jupiter. "Both planes were in range of the Mir reentry, but neither saw it," Citron said.

In the spectator sport of being in the right place at the right time to see falling space debris, there are no guarantees.

"There was spontaneous applause for our expedition in the aircraft after we realized that we had not seen Mir reenter and it was down, Citron said. "Sure there was disappointment at not seeing it. But we were excited to be at that place just as it was coming in," he said.

"It was an intensive two months of planning. But theres no question that we would do it again," Citron said.