BBC News - Ryanair admits volcanic ash in Belfast engines
So, to all the naysayers this stuff does exist and it goes in the big round things that suck in tonnes of air and burns it up.
Note that Ryanair initially denied this entirely.
According to the report these aircraft had flown in airspace that was "open and unrestricted".
This made me chuckle: "The spokesman said Ryanair cannot explain why there was ash in the engines other than there are trace elements of it in the atmosphere." Well, duh! There's this honking great big volcano barfing up huge plumes of stuff - all along it has been stated that this stuff is not necessarily visible to be harmful.
I suspect this is the tip of the iceberg.
For now all I expect is a series of replies denying this is really a problem, etc.
I'm half expecting a "wrong-kind-of-air" excuse, bit like the "wrong-kind-of-leaves" excuse that British Rail use every few years or so, when all the trains stop running in Autumn.
- GY