The sky is on fire! Passenger captures the incredible moment a sea of clouds is transformed into 'molten lava' by the setting sun

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Most people expect to see a monotonous sea of clouds when they're flying at 37,000ft.

But when one passenger looked out of her window mid-flight, she was surprised to discover that her plane appeared to be flying over a lava-spewing volcano.

The vision that Penny Bowman from Melbourne, Australia, was greeted with was in fact an optical illusion created by the setting sun.

Ms Bowman managed to capture a series of photographs that show the moment a perfectly average sunset turned into something quite stunning as her plane flew over Melbourne

At first, the clouds just took on an orange tinge (left). But as the sun set over the horizon, the clouds became illuminated from below (right)

Ms Bowman managed to capture a series of photographs that show the moment a perfectly average sunset turned into something quite stunning as her plane flew over Melbourne.

At first the clouds above her plane glowed peach, but as the sun crept towards the horizon, the clouds below the aircraft became illuminated in orange. 

The glow was so vibrant that it almost appeared as though the sky was on fire. 

Ms Bowman said: 'We were about 10 minutes from touching down and these beautiful skies appeared underneath us so I just took it on my iPhone. I only had two percent battery remaining.

Ms Bowman was flying home to Melbourne when she spotted the sunset from her window and captured the entire phenomenon with her phone

'I just thought it was a really stunning shot, it was about 5.30pm at night and it was only like this for about a minute or two and then it clouded over.

'I saw later lots of people had taken pictures of the sunset on the ground but I was getting a different view from above. I just wanted everyone to see the picture.'

She added: 'I had a busy week at a conference on the Gold Coast and there had been four days of talking and loudness and I got on this flight and there were some kids sitting next to me going crazy.

'I just wanted a bit of peace and quiet and then I looked out of the window and saw that, and it was beautiful and made me feel so peaceful and calm.' 

She said: 'I just wanted a bit of peace and quiet and then I looked out of the window and saw that, and it was beautiful and made me feel so peaceful and calm'