Icelandic volcanic ash alert grounds UK flights

[dipsydoodle]

Source: BBC News

Airline passengers are facing massive disruption across the UK after an ash cloud from a volcanic eruption in Iceland grounded planes.

In Scotland, all airports are shut and there is disruption at many others including Manchester, Liverpool, Stansted, Newcastle and Birmingham.

The Air Traffic Control Service (Nats) imposed restrictions after the Met Office warned ash could damage engines.

>

Experts have warned that the tiny particles of rock, glass and sand contained in the ash cloud would be sufficient to jam aircraft engines.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8621407.stm

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Now shutting all UK airports from midday (BST)

Effectively, they're shutting UK airspace to anything apart from emergencies.

[dipsydoodle]

2. I just noticed

they'd up dated the narrative - airspace effectively shut from midday to 1800BST. I guess that allows time to clear all trans Atlantic traffic because it probably won't be able to land further east of the UK into Europe for similar reasons.

[aquart]

3. It's good thinking.

I wonder what else that ash will mess with?

[Christa]

5. Good question! nt

[T_i_B]

4. So then UK DUer's......

What Pompei-esque pose are you to strike as we all get covered in ash?

I'm going for the Saturday Night Fever pose myself!

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

6. Good luck keeping the white suit clean

:hi:

[HereSince1628]

7. bent over, head tucked between legs, kissing arse good-bye

seems appropriate.

[dipsydoodle]

10. I hope the skies are clear tonight

Maybe get a great sunset.

The latin hustle pose - got a white jacket ? :)

[Nihil]

16. Depends on the temperature ...

... but the Cerne Abbas giant has just got to be the one!

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. See, this is why the British government used the Terrorist Act against Iceland

It's a Weapon of Mass Disruption.

[JCMach1]

9. Emirates cancelled all flights to UK... big transport muckup because of this

today

[bigworld]

11. Belgian and Danish airspace closed as well

<>

[activa8tr]

13. Thanks for the map!

It looks like it's only affecting Scotland from that, though.

But I see on BBC TV that some of that will go further south toward Manchester and London.

BBC TV also saying there's no sign that the eruption is slowing down.

This will be a major inconvenience to tourists and commerce in the UK and Europe for days.

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. That's just at 0600 GMT - Met Office animation here:

[dipsydoodle]

12. Flights in and out of the UK

now cancelled until 6am GMT / 7am BST Friday at the earliest. Soon expected to impact France and Germany - possibly Russia too.e

[Judi Lynn]

14. Views of the Ash Plume Over Europe

April 15, 2010, 8:57 am
Views of the Ash Plume Over Europe
By ROBERT MACKEY

As my colleagues Julia Werdigier and Nicola Clark report, a high-altitude cloud of ash drifting south and east from an erupting volcano in Iceland has closed airports in northern Europe. Flights have been canceled because volcanic ash contains silicates, or glass fibers, which can melt inside jet engines, causing them to flame out and stall.

The ash is coming from an eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, located near a glacier of the same name (which, for those not fluent in Icelandic, is pronounced, AYA-feeyapla-yurkul) in southern Iceland, which began erupting last month for the first time in nearly 200 years. As The Lede explained last month, the spectacular images of the eruption’s early stages had tourists rushing to the scene, though it may not be necessary to hurry, given that the last time there was an eruption at Eyjafjallajokull, in 1821, it continued for two years.

Closer views of the volcano, from three Web cams, can be had online — although one camera is currently down “for maintenance.” A handy interactive graphic from The Guardian shows how the ash is spreading across European airspace.

More:
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/views-of-the-ash-plume-over-europe/?ref=world

(Videos available within the article)

[suffragette]

15. I wonder if eruptions will go on for 2 years, as they did last time

That's a fascinating link. Thanks for posting it.

[cbayer]

18. K & R. This thing is huge.

[Tesha]

19. Time to build the New-Old England Tunnel under the Atlantic...

...and get some high-speed rail runnin through there!

Tesha

[kentauros]

28. You mean like this one?

The Tunnel

:D

[muriel_volestrangler]

35. I prefer 'Battle Beneath the Earth'

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061387/

The paranoia about the commies makes it much funnier.

[brooklynite]

20. Biggest transatlantic flight grounding since 9/11

Source: Crain's New York Business

Airports shut down across Northern Europe on Thursday—cancelling most transatlantic flights to and from New York—as a giant plume of ash continued to spread from Iceland's erupting volcano.

The explosion in Iceland is sending volcanic ash as high as 36,000 feet, blocking air traffic routes and causing the largest shutdown of air travel since the wholesale grounding of flights following the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Major airports in the United Kingdom closed mid-morning to all but emergency flights, and British aviation officials said they will not re-open until 7:00 am local time Friday.

France closed more than 20 airports, including Paris' main venue, Charles de Gaulle.

...snip...

At mid-afternoon Eastern Standard Time, the plume of ash was still spreading southward over Europe.

Read more: http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20100415/FREE/100419907

---

Scheduled to fly out next Thursday. If the eruption continues, I'm wondering if they'll get anything out then.

[Warpy]

21. The problem is a kink in the jet stream

that is directing the ash plume in a more southerly direction than it would ordinarily take. Air travel is going to be chancy there until the jet stream goes to a chiropractor and gets straightened out.

[Larkspur]

22. Time to bring back the Trans Atlantic Cruise liners

[Terry in Austin]

24. Now you're talking!

I did a couple of trips across the Atlantic and one across the Pacific in my young Army-brat days. Wonderful experience!

Besides, flying is such a... stunt. An incredibly wasteful one, at that. It's kind of amazing that it became the "normal" way to travel.

[LakeSamish706]

23. This site has a good video and report on this problem... Wow

http://www.google.ca/search?q=Icelandic+Volcano&hl=en&lr=&pwst=1&rlz=1G1ACGWCENCA367&source=univ&tbs=nws:1&tbo=u&ei=cWXHS_n1C4imsgOLvfX0BA&sa=X&oi=news_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBMQsQQwAA

[WatchWhatISay]

25. Can't they just fly around it?

[Ichingcarpenter]

30. Look at the maps

on the fuel of your intellect

[Retrograde]

33. Great Circles

The quickest way to get from many big cities in Western Europe to ones in North America is to go up and over Greenland, which means part of the route goes right through the plume. It's considerably longer to use what looks like the direct route on a flat Mercator projection.

I'm glad we got back from the UK Monday night. Heathrow's a big enough mess on a normal day.

[brooklynite]

26. UPDATE - Europe flights could be grounded for 48 hours by ash

from the BBC:

The European air traffic control organisation has said flights could be disrupted for another 48 hours by ash spewing from a volcano in Iceland.

Eurocontrol spokesman Brian Flynn said a lack of wind in the area meant the ash cloud was "progressing very slowly eastwards" and remained "very dense".

Up to 5,000 flights could have been affected by the end of Thursday.

Planes have been grounded in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

[Ichingcarpenter]

27. I live in Northern Europe now

this is major shit

[Nothing Without Hope]

29. SATELLITE IMAGE OF ASH and link

The ash is the grey streak across the image about 1/3 down:



Link to article with this image:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100415110042.htm

[Liberalynn]

31. My younger cousin is very upset about this.

He was going to travel to Ireland and then Austria with a friend of his,and was supposed to leave today. Now he is not sure whether he will get to go or not. His flight hadn't been officially cancelled when my sister last talked to him this afternoon, but I am sure it is now. He was really looking forward to the trip, it would have been his first time, overseas, and he is not sure when or if he will be able to reschedule the trip.

[Nihil]

40. The worst thing about this (from the would-be holidaymaker's view) ...

... is that travel insurance companies are saying that they will
only cover the refund of the flight cost, nothing else, as it is
an "Act of God" ...

Hope your cousin has more luck.
:hug:

[Liberalynn]

41. Thanks.

:hug: I hope so too. He had bought the travel insurance. In Austria, he and his travel companion had planned to be staying at the house of a friend, whom they had met here in the states, through the student foreign exchange program. So he will only have to worry about cancelling the hotel and car rental reservations in Ireland.

[muriel_volestrangler]

42. Here's a site that plots the aricraft movements over Europe, live

It is, unsurprisingly, overloaded at the moment (it says "online users: too many" :) ), but when you can get a picture from it, it shows that at the moment, Italy still looks open, and Istanbul, and a few places in between, but nothing north of the Alps.

http://www.flightradar24.com/?lat=54d77&lng=12d61&zoom=4

If Italy stays open, it's easy to get to Austria from there. It might be worth inquiring if there's any way to switch a flight (though all those Italy flights may not be transatlantic, of course - they'd normally fly a great circle route to the north west).

[Liberalynn]

43. Thank you Muriel

I will pass the link and idea on to him. :hug:

[jakeXT]

32. Documentary "All Engines Failed" about BA 009 flying through volcanic ash in 1982

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWDU8XRQ_GY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2QGc4nqpgo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5o_Aakw6OQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJu_RIG-qE0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PSbpaEo_qs



When volcanic ash stopped a Jumbo at 37,000ft

A plume of volcanic ash from Iceland has led to flights across the UK being grounded. The events around one British Airways flight in 1982 reveal the potential dangers of this sort of dust.

Boing 747
The passenger jet effectively turned into a glider

When all four engines on the Boeing 747 being flown by Captain Eric Moody shut down at 37,000ft, he hadn't a clue why.

It wasn't until later, when Capt Moody, his crew and the 247 passengers on board the flight, were safely back on the ground, that he discovered the cause of the narrowly averted catastrophe - volcanic ash.

...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8622099.stm

[Yeahyeah]

34. One ash hole sure can f things up.

[Judi Lynn]

36. Why are volcanic plumes so dangerous?

Why are volcanic plumes so dangerous?
Melted ash particles can stop an airplane engine completely

http://msnbcmedia3.msn.com.nyud.net:8090/j/MSNBC/Components/Slideshows/_production/ss-100415-iceland-volcano/ss-100415-iceland-volcano-01.hmedium.jpg

By Remy Melina
updated 12:39 p.m. CT, Thurs., April 15, 2010

The mushrooming cloud of ash from the eruption of the Eyjafjallajoekull volcano in Iceland has resulted in the closure of major airports throughout the U.K. and Scandinavia. The grounded flights make sense, as these super-heated plumes can do more than reduce visibility. They're downright hazards for airplanes.

"Basically, planes and volcanic ash don't mix," Elizabeth Cory, a spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration, said today. "When ash is ingested into the engine, it creates problems for the plane, including electrical failure."

The thing that makes volcanic plumes so dangerous is that they look extremely similar to regular clouds, visibly and on radar screens. Even when ash isn't visible to the human eye, it can still pose a threat to aircrafts because of the chemicals floating within volcanic plumes.

Airborne ash makes air travel extremely dangerous and difficult for several reasons, the number one being that when the air that gets sucked through an aircraft's jet engine is mixed with ash, it can cause engine failure.

More:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36564023/ns/technology_and_science-science/

[defendandprotect]

37. k-

[dipsydoodle]

38. UK planes grounded until Saturday

Flights across the UK are to remain grounded for a second day as volcanic ash from Iceland drifts across Europe.

At 0830BST, the air traffic control body Nats extended its unprecedented restrictions on UK airspace until at least 0100BST on Saturday. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8623806.stm

As far as I'm aware there are few if any after that time anyway until c. 6am in the morning. I've friends who live in the vicinity of Heathrow which is about 14 miles form me. Needless to say they're enjoying the sound of silence.

[tama]

39. This can last a long time

Last time the volcano erupted for two years.

I don't care if all air traffic stops for ever. But if this gets really bad, I worry about how it affects the crop.

[Old Troop]

44. Could this cause cooling

and interfere with crops?

[dipsydoodle]

45. On a larger scale

yes.

[Old Troop]

46. Can you explain?

I remember nuclear winter, but don't have any idea how volcanoes would affect us

[dipsydoodle]

48. Contributes to global dimming

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_dimming

[The abyss]

51. nuclear winter effect

I wondered about this.

If there will be enough ash floating around to create a small nuclear winter effect over the northern hemisphere for the next few years.

Could get rather nasty in the northern hemisphere.

Thanks for asking this question!

[Yeahyeah]

50. The New Ice Age,brought to you by Iceland.

[conspirator]

47. No Problemo. I can be in Paris in 2 hours by Eurostar nt

[dipsydoodle]

49. That's subject to

availablity of tickets when you want/need to go. They sold out quickly yesterday as passengers switched to rail from air of necessity.

According to the news this morning the whole of Europe is now shut down, including Ukraine and Belarous, and there is still no sign of the volcano calming down.