Seriously thoughtful UK flights grounded by Icelandic volcano

[Bilbo1967]

Just got home from Essen, Germany. Had to hire a car to drive to Dieppe on the French coast (crossing Holland, Belgium and France).

Ran out of fuel on the way on a French motorway and literally coasted with no engine for 1.5km right to the pump of a very handily located petrol station.

Got to our hotel and couldn't get in because the booking codes we had been given when we booked it were fictitious, so payed again and had 3 hours sleep before driving to the ferry port, literally abandoning the hire car and catching the 6am ferry to the UK. Picked up a hire car at the port and drove 3 hours to Birmingham Airport to pick up my car and got in the front door about 20 minutes ago.

I am exhausted - but happy to be home

[cmdahler]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

Good luck to whoever is going up - I hope they get back ok.

I suppose they have special planes to deal with these type of situations, like they do for flying through hurricanes.

Sun is going down, but no atmospheric display so far.

If they are using a turboprop with a well-screened intake, that might help, although you of course run the risk of the intake clogging and thus killing the engine. Brief encounters with ash aren't going to destroy a jet engine right away, so a short flight at slow speeds (to limit the damage to windshields, etc.) wouldn't be all that big of a problem. It's the large turbofan jets flying at typical cruise speeds that suffer the most damage from ash from even mild encounters with ash.

British Airways Flight 9 Jakarta ash encounter is a good read.

[bevdeforges]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

I just checked and both airports in Paris are still closed apparently, so Barcelona is out too

Last I heard, the Paris airports are closed until Monday at the earliest.

Last time this volcano went off it apparently kept blowing stuff into the air for two years. Though apparently what they are hoping for at this point is a change in the weather pattern that will blow the ash in some other direction for a while.

[cmdahler]

Originally Posted by wodin

Harumph!

We, here in the beautiful Sandwich Islands live with it all the time, especially with interisland flights. Planes coming and going to the Big Island, where the active volcano is, have the highest cycle (one takeoff and one landing) rate of any in the world, and are continually flying through vog (volcanic fog composed of gases and ash from Kiluea).

It results in a higher maintenance schedule for the aircraft, but little in the way of safety issues. Some of the older plane’s windshields look like they’ve been sand blasted, and the paint work is shiny only on new planes.

I don’t often have the opportunity to call the Brits wimps, but this is one!

No disrespect intended, but Kilauea puts out almost no ash compared to other types of volcanoes that put out vast quantities during an eruption. You have no idea what ash is until you've been through one of those. With Kilauea, you get a nice, gentle upwelling of lava that just nicely flows down to the sea at a relatively slow pace. The vog is primarily composed of gasses with a very small quantity of ash, hardly even enough to mention. The summit occasionally burps out an tiny ash cloud for a few seconds that dissipates quickly. An eruption like the Icelandic volcano is pumping out tons of ash every second. It's a completely different kind of eruption, and the Europeans are very correct to be worried about the effects of this ash on aircraft in flight - it will quickly damage or destroy jet engines (like, within mere minutes of the exposure to high ash concentrations).

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by cmdahler

If they are using a turboprop with a well-screened intake, that might help, although you of course run the risk of the intake clogging and thus killing the engine.

From what I saw on the news , they used a turbo prop with laser detection equipment (as normal aircraft detectors see right through ash clouds).

The news report in the UK said the Met Office sent the plane to the wrong place on Thursday , it went up again on Friday and one of the scientists said he wouldn't advise sending planes up into what they found then.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

From what I saw on the news , they used a turbo prop with laser detection equipment (as normal aircraft detectors see right through ash clouds).

The news report in the UK said the Met Office sent the plane to the wrong place on Thursday , it went up again on Friday and one of the scientists said he wouldn't advise sending planes up into what they found then.

That news reports is here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8626625.stm

Don't know if it's only available to people in the UK or not.

[kindlekitten]

I was listening to reports on NPR yesterday about how quiet it was with no planes in the air. shades of our post 9/11 life...

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by bevdeforges

Last I heard, the Paris airports are closed until Monday at the earliest.

Last time this volcano went off it apparently kept blowing stuff into the air for two years. Though apparently what they are hoping for at this point is a change in the weather pattern that will blow the ash in some other direction for a while.

It's caught up in a spiral across Western Europe at the moment ...

Rain is forecast for us tonight, so that might bring some ash to the ground (should be good for the plants)....

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

Rain is forecast for us tonight, so that might bring some ash to the ground (should be good for the plants)....

The ash is largely above 20,000', which is way above most rainclouds.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The ash is largely above 20,000', which is way above most rainclouds.

Not necessarily ....


The rain bearing clouds due across Northern Britain during the next 48 hours are expected to brew over the waters south if Iceland. The ash clouds in that area are sufficiently low enough to be wound up into the weather system....

[HarryT]

Sounds good. Should at least prevent some stuff from reaching us.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Sounds good. Should at least prevent some stuff from reaching us.

That's right, it may have a tendency to help 'wash out' the ash - but the main problem is that the volcano itself remains active ...

Once the Upper Air pattern becomes more mobile, then that will also help to clear the large spacial distribution of the current ash problem...

I've seen ash clouds from Iceland on previous occasions, and they haven't caused this amount of 'damage' - it's an accident of timing !

[YGG-]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

Well finally tonight! Caught an --empty, she says-- train from Karlsruhe to Paris ; should be there around 8:30 ...

[GeoffC]

Some good news ...

ps. YGG will tip into 1000 posts on the next one ....

[Ea]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm visiting Iceland in a few weeks. Nice of them to lay on a volcano for me!

Have a nice trip! I hope you have enough time to see the sights properly. And remember your sweater