Pluto occultation on 2015 June 29 UTC with central flash and atmospheric spikes just before the New Horizons flyby

•We observed an occultation of the brightest star ever in our series of Pluto occultations, 12th magnitude.•The event was only about two Pluto-days (and 15 Earth-days) before the flyby of NASA's New Horizons spacecraft.•Our observations from the Mt. John Observatory and Auckland in New Zealand were simultaneous to SOFIA observations with its 100-inch telescope and occultation photometer HIPO, overflying not far from Mt. John.•At Mt. John, with the 1-m telescope, we were so close to the center of the occultation that we observed a central flash, enabling us to study the atmosphere close to the limb than ever before.•We observed a number of bright spikes in the light curve during ingress and egress from both Mt. John and Auckland, showing structure in Pluto's atmosphere.•With the subsequent determination of Pluto's size from New Horizons, we have a more accurate scale for the atmosphere than from previous occultation observations.