You guys across the pond may get screwed out of a trip to TTR anytime soon! Heard on the news this morning that air travel could be interupted for weeks....maybe months!
Not sure where you saw that but the airspace is back open today. Predicted to be back to normal within 24 hours. BBC News - Europe flights could be grounded into weekend by ash BBC News - Iceland volcano: UK flights grounded for second day
yeah les seems like people in general tend to read a headline and freak happened with a random hurricane back in 2008 that never really even came close to cancun - yet everyone panicked and freaked based upon a headline that mentioned something about a hurricane happens with the drug war crap even to this day even though the actual killing fileds of that war are closer to dallas than cancun happened with the end all be all world collapse swine flu plaque even though it never caused any problem in cancun happening now with the dante's volcano granted the media sensationalizes every event 400 million times over rarely reporting the reality and just generalizing - guess that is what most people want to hear and believe the best see you guys in two weeks rob
well we got totally screwed, was supposed to be traveling today, instead our holiday has bee cancelled, all airspace shut until at least 0700 hours sat, and no guaruntees that further disruption will not happen
diamondheaded I agree that most of that list is crap shoved down our throats, but as a geologist I have to say I agree with this one in terms of safety. The problem is that volcanic ash is really nasty stuff, somewhere between concrete when wet and incredibly sharp shards of glass that is all microscopic. If you suck that into a jet engine it can plug engines up really fast. As much as it sucks for our Euro-partiers sadly it probably isn't worth the risk of having their plane go down somewhere in the Atlantic
Really Really Sorry to hear that you guys, you have my sympathy can't imagine planning this trip, the excitement etc. and then cancelled.
I heard today that years ago a plane did fly through volcanic ash, took the paint right off the plane, engines stopped, once he got through the engines came back... Sounds like really bad stuff.
Yea...ash is made up of fine particles that basically sandblast the plane....obscuring the cockpit windows and wrecking havoc on the aircraft exterior. And when the ash is injested into an engine, it becomes molten and adheres to internal sections, potentially flaming them out. In years past, before a lot was known about the damage an ash cloud would cause, airliners would fly close or through them without regard. We soon learned we shouldn't do this. Additionally, once airborne, there is really no method to track an ash cloud in the same method that severe weather can be tracked. As Dave and Ellie said, it's best to be on the side of safety and avoid if at all possible.
And he was a lucky one. Like Canadian Dos Equis fan, I too work in an area that deals with this. Volcanic Ash is pretty much the worst aviation hazard there is.
Here is a pretty cool picture from NASA showing what the plume looks like. http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/444588main_icelandvolcano-20100615.jpg It's really huge so I didn't paste it directly.
