How memories are short. I find it incredulous for anyone, let alone Sir Richard, to suggest that in the first two or three days of the ash reaching/covering the UK we could have continued operations in the face of an anti-cyclone dragging volcanic ash into our airspace. We would have had to put aside good airmanship, all of our knowledge of VA and its hazards, ignored the advice in our ops/airplane and engine manufacturers manuals- and that of the ICAO led VAAC. That was never going to happen. The fact that NATS prevented IFR flight in our airspace is in truth, secondary to the above; how many airline pilots would have been comfortable getting airborne or flying through this airspace given the information they had available to them at the time? How many Chief Engineers would have had the confidence to say, it's OK let's continue operations? Who had the confidence to risk the repair or replacements of leased engine's and airframes?
It was only after the risk was assessed by regulators and OEM's that it was established that it was safe and reasonable to start flying again. And by then the ash was much more widely dispersed. And to do that in the time they did was quite remarkable.
Of course, with hindsight, the airline industry should have had this issue sorted out long- However, to those not involved in the negotiations to set safe limits of ash- we thought we had- the rule was- we don't fly into VA!
Sure, there are many lessons to be learned and we'll all do it better next time, but it is disingenuous for anyone to say or suggest that we could have just kept flying as normal or been able to pick our way through corridors free from ash.
Last edited by no sig; 25th Apr 2010 at 20:51.