There's been a couple of close calls though:
I am not disputing there have been close calls but those have been flying into visible ash clouds or not so visible at night.
The fact is in millions of flights over a 50 year period NOT ONE DEATH!
Volcanos are not a new thing!
Compare that to aircraft lost flying into a CB? do we close big chunks of airspace because there are thunderstorms around? No we as pilots deal with them.
Do we ground aircraft in the bird migration season? No we dont yet both hold demonstrable risk.
Ash in invisible form is a percieved risk.
Ok we may have increased the accepeted levels from one thimblefull in a four bedroom house to 20 thimble fulls in a four bedroom house but still very low levels and still levels which would be invisible in ash cloud form.
Well done RyanAir for making a point!
Pace