PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - For those flying Pacific North Routes.
View Single Post
Old 24th Mar 2009, 22:34
  #4 (permalink)  
GlueBall
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: UTC +8
Posts: 2,626
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Flights continue as usual with planned weather diversions. The ash clouds are tracked by meteorologists just as are pacific typhoons or tropical storms which are circumnavigated.

On a northerly trans pacific flight, such as YVR-HKG, a preplanned, overall reroute further south from the Alaskan peninsula, or Aleutian chain, if necessary, would be insignificant. For 4-engined, non ETOPS airplanes, SFO or LAX-HKG routes are far south and wouldn't be affected by Alaska weather. Moreover, prevailing winds generally cause the ash clouds to drift east, and not south unto pacific routes.
GlueBall is offline