Roy Hudd:
A lot of nervy scaremongers have gone very quiet. Now why would that be?
They had all the plausible arguments for the huge risks and dangers attached to going flying within 1000nm of that wicked volcano.
Many of us have operated within 25nm of active volcanoes in theatres of operation like Indonesia, Sicily, and Iceland. Not forgetting Mexico and Western USA/Canada.
I suspect there's not a professional pilot among the naysayers who have suddenly gone mute. And the truth is that there's nothing they resent more than opinions from opinionated pilots which concern operating commercial aircraft.
The naysayers like me are simply applying the precautionary principle. Would you rather lose a weeks pay or watch your fleet become progressively grounded by a lack of engines with working hot sections and lose all your pay perhaps permanently?
Until you can be satisfied it is safe to do so, and demonstrate that it is not going to be financial suicde from an engine maintenance perspective, you cannot fly.
No one to my knowledge has developed a model of what is a "safe" ash concentration that can be digested by a modern jet engine without unacceptable deleterious effects on hot section life...
Lets load some aircraft with the commentators here who bag Government, Airlines, Aircraft and engine manufacturers, NAT, meteorology bureaux, the ones for call for instant test results and African sand jockey pilots who have flown with Volcano plumes (VFR) and you can all go and do the test flights for us...