We have data; government aircraft from several nations, including the UK have tested the air quality and stated that its is not good enough for aircraft to fly. You choose to ignore that, as well as ignoring the advice of engineers, engine manufactures and the experience of the many aircraft that have flow through similar concentrations of ash plumes.
Tosh.
The research aircraft returned safely, and nobody has released pics of their turbines. And the aircraft that did have problems in ash were in thick ash, not the traces we have in the atmosphere over N Europe.
I spy administrators, towing the established party line.
Yes, it obviously a vote winning strategy to close down the holiday business, strand 150k abroad, put major companies into bankruptcy and hundreds of thousands of people out of work, interfere with the export business and cause potential serious economic damage at the time of election.
The point is that modern politicians are totally risk-adverse, and that Gordon Brown always goes AWOL when there are difficult issues to discuss and assess. Which means we will never get a rational decision.
European airspace may well be unusable, alternatively it may be absolutely fine, but we will never know until someone starts researching, assessing and making rational decisions.
At the moment, we have political rabbits caught in the headlights of an Icelandic eruption.