hi Global Warrior
lets get some facts straight:
Theres too much going on here that is just too vague. For a start the area of volcanic ash is a best guess anyway based on a model that has no input with actual location of volcanic ash being as it cant be measured. Therefore, it could be far far more wide spread than we think, or significantly less wide spread.
see the data from MetOffice - seems that they may have some real data gathered all the time
Thats fine people but the notion that suddenly an aeroplane is going to fall out of the sky if a test flight is conducted is just ludicrous. For those that have even bothered to examine the BA9 incident, even they, after flying in the most concentrated part of the ash cloud, got all 4 engines running again once they descended out of it so comments like
.. got the engines relighted and immediately landed in Jakarta for major engine overhaul. Why did they not continue further to Australia as planned? if SOP were obeyed then why not obeying them now?
One "aeronautical engineer" is wheeled out after a flight in a Dornier, that BTW DID NOT CRASH and says that he wouldnt want to put airliners up there. Sadly he has lost all credibility as it was HIS PERSONAL OPINION released immediately after he returned........ there had not been any time to examine the data recovered. Maybe he smelt sulphur and that clouded his judgement but firing off like that was nothing more than him getting his 15 minutes of fame.
he is a scientist working on air pollution so has some credibility. He had some
scientific equipment up there with him and took
measurements that can be easily read and
analyzed. When asked for opinion he gave it.
Nobody says that any jet flying into the ash cloud will fall out of the sky - it will suffer some damage which may be even catastrophic if damage is slowly progressing over time spent in the area with ash. So far nobody has technology to measure this and hence the reluctance to say its OK to fly commercial jets.
...Therefore we should start slowly and with certain restrictions in place and then move on once data has been gathered.
and this is exactly what is going on. Just remeber that the volcano started Apr 14th only nad we are talking about the decisons valid for (almost) whole Europe with several big and may smaller operators.
So a start could be, for example, to let 4 engined aircraft operate, within the assumed affected area in Daylight hours only and outside of visible cloud and then inspect said aircraft for engine damage on a continual basis and as we build a knowledge base, move forward.
(1) the ash is deadly concentration is hardly visible, in harmful concentration is NOT visible
(2) the additional time for precise inspection would make the flight shedules go bust so the new schedules would be needed.
How much time is needed to work out a new schedules for all interested? A month?
Scaremongering isnt going to help anybody and neither is bravado. Moving forward, step by small step will allow us all to learn
you are absolutely right on this
BUT with ad personam remarks you do not help to reach conclusions and start to work together on finding a solution