This airspace closure is really getting out of bounds with all notion of common sense...
This whole thing really confirms the inabillity of politicians and officials to make any rational decision to any major crisis that creep up on them. As it has been made clear here in previous posts that no real measurement to speak of have been made on air contaminants and all decision making has been based on computer modeling and on what seems perception.
I do not recall a comparable mass hysteria taking place in southeast asia when Mt Pinatubo erupted in 1991. That eruption acording to wikipedia was second largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century, 10 times larger than the 1980 eruption of Mt St. Helens and the resulting plume circled the globe in a couple of weeks. In comparison makes the current activity in Mt Eyjafjallajökull seem like a fart in the wind...
It is totally unacceptable that authorities in Europe with all modern technologies at their disposal do not put more effort into real measurement on this ´fart´. The only sensible method IMO is to put aircraft up there and boroscope before and after the flights in oder to establish wheter flying is safe or not, obviously I am not talking about flying into visible ash clouds.
The tests that BA, LH and KLM carried out over the weekend showed with out a doubt that deposites in the atmosphere do not affect engines or other aircraft equipment. Even though commercial pressure made the beforementioned airlines send aircraft up there ´into uncharted territory´, they would not put their reputations on the line and deem the airspace safe to fly in if it wouldn´t be. These airlines are all regarded as higly professional outfits and are repected by aviation experts all over the world.
I would think that by now it would be safe to asume that the initial plume has dispersed enough to resume at least 95% of normal flying in the region.
Enoug is enoug since by now our jobs are at serious risk here by inability of politicians and lawmakers to make a rational decision.
Early Right is online now Report Post
Really? You think that no airline management ever makes a risky decision or allows un-necessary dangers to enter operations for commercial advantage? You can't be working in the industry, then.
I don't want to see this stretch out any longer than is necessary - I have lost five days' worth of flight pay now (at least I'm at home, unlike many less fortunate colleagues and pax), and I worry about the financial impacts on the industry and the economy as a whole, but I just don't know whether it's safe to fly or not. The impartial evidence suggests strongly that it isn't, while
PR stunts by the airlines, who appear to have avoided flying in the more concentrated cloud over the UK, do nothing to convince me of the safety of flying at all. I'd rather be at home worrying about cash flow than airborne worrying about my engines failing with the additional problems of the airports and airspace being congested with other emergency traffic.