Eyjafjallajökull Eruption: Flight Ban Lifted

How Prepared Are YOU for a Major Disaster?

Eyjafjallajokull volcano is producing more lava, ash plume smaller:  Icelandic Scientists

Eyjafjallajökull Activity Easing for Now: Europe’s skies are open, but there are too many stranded passengers to deal with

Here’s a summary of what’s happening in Europe right now:

Flight bans are lifted in Europe after nearly a week of restrictions caused by volcanic ash clouds drifting from Eyjafjallajökull glacial volcano.

Since last Thursday, April 15, some 100,000 flights from and to European destinations were canceled, stranding an estimated 18 million passengers worldwide, most of them in Europe. The cancellations came into effect a day after Eyjafjallajökull erupted, ejecting massive plumes of ash into the air, which drifted towards UK and rest of Europe.

Scale of disruption to the flights over Europe April 21, 2010. Image sourced from BBC World News, and may be subject to copyright. See Fire-Earth Fair Use Notice for details. Click image to enlarge.

From “NO Tolerance” to “Tolerance” in a few threats

The UK Met Office, which is the North-west European Volcanic Ash Advisory Center with responsibility for issuing the Volcanic Ash Advisories for volcanoes erupting in that area, had previously said that it would support decision-making by the UK’s National Air Traffic Service (NATS), the country’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and other aviation authorities.

“It is for the aviation industry and regulator to set thresholds for safe ash ingestion. Currently, world-wide advice from ICAO is based on engine and airframe manufacturers stating that aircraft should not be exposed to any volcanic ash.” It said in a statement.

So the Airports and airlines went knocking angrily on the plane manufacturers doors:

“The major barrier to resuming flight has been understanding tolerance levels of aircraft to ash,” the CAA said in a statement

“Manufacturers have now agreed increased tolerance levels in low ash density areas.”

“Transport Secretary Lord Adonis, who made the initial announcement, denied the decision to reopen airspace was the result of pressure from the airline industry.” BBC reported.

“The issue at stake here has been the assessment of the safety authorities as to what is the safe way in which planes can fly when there is a presence of ash.” He said.

“The fact which has changed in the last week is we have had a volcanic eruption and having to assess safe levels of ash content in the atmosphere within which planes can fly has been an urgent issue which the safety authorities have had to deal with.”

The fact that some of the airplanes may fall out of the sky in 3 months time, without anyone revealing what exactly caused the crash(s) is entirely irrelevant to his Lordship’s falsity.

“This solution has been reached as a result of the close working between the government, the Civil Aviation Authority, airlines and the manufacturers, and will allow the thousands of UK citizens stranded abroad to return home to their families.” The UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said. [The safety of passengers has never been a paramount issue.]

“We will of course continue to monitor the situation closely; as we have said throughout safety is our primary concern,” he added. [You mean when when a BA plane crashes? More likely, you’d probably help cover up what caused it, if that happened.]

DO NOT FLY PLANES THAT HAVE BEEN EXPOSED TO VOLCANIC ASH!

How Prepared Are YOU for a Major Disaster? More on this later.

Related Links:

• EyjafjallajökullEruption video by Ómar Ragnarsson [Latest available video]
• “Thank God men cannot as yet fly and lay waste the sky as well as the earth!”
• How many are up there polluting our skies?
• Eyjafjallajökull Eruption Links Page

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