Ash clouds threaten air traffic

[dwshimoda]

Just had my AGP cancelled with all LBA departures cancelled - going to be an interesting day...

Back to bed for another few hours...

[Mr @ Spotty M]

This could be the final nail in the coffin lid for some operators if this does shut down all airspace in the UK and beyond.
My limited knowledge of the weather, it seems that we will be dragging in air from that area for a few more days yet, could be a very quite weekend.

[M609]

Quiet day for some today.....perhaps not the airline call centers.....



There is a meeting at 0600Z to update the conditions for Oslo AOR, but it looks like they will zero rate it at about 0800Z.

[fisbangwollop]

Q) Egxx/qafxx/iv/nbo/e/000/999/5441n00219w999
B) From: 10/04/15 12:00c) To: 10/04/15 17:59
E) A Volcanic Ash Cloud, Originating In Iceland, Is Having A
Major Impact
Affecting Uk Airspace.
Uk Area Affected:
610000n 0100000w
610000n 0000000w
600000n 0000000w
570000n 0050000e
550000n 0050000e
515700n 0022100w
515800n 0031019w
513932n 0031018w
511535n 0020000w
500016n 0012236w
500000n 0020000w
492841n 0045500w
493134n 0060307w
493842n 0080000w
510000n 0080000w
522000n 0053000w
533837n 0053000w
553100n 0025600w
575900n 0033800w
601609n 0100000w
Operators Should Refer To Va Advisory 1004150000 For Further
Information.
In Accordance With Icao Volcanic Ash Contingency Plan, No Ifr
Clearance Will Be Issued For Penetration Of The Forecast Contaminated
Area That Lies Within Uk Airspace. B0687/10

[ben_keghead]

easyJet have cancelled the 1st wave departures from northern airfields, including LPL & MAN.

Flight Departures Checker For the latest flight information

[Fargoo]

BA have cancelled all domestic services for the 15th

British Airways News - Latest BA News

[Sprogget]

Capt. Eric Moody's flight 28 years ago is illustrative.

British Airways Flight 9 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[manrow]

Flight cancellations now spreading to Newquay and Exeter in the south west of England; local media reporting applies to routes north of the listed airfields.

[Meeb]

ALL UK Airspace now CLOSED...

[Nemrytter]

The cloud still appears to be very, very, thin and dispersed. Still, better safe than sorry.
It's currently just reached the North of Scotland, an hour ago the situation looked like this, the dark color being ash:

[biddedout]

Lets hope the overnight inbounds to the UK and Europe were pre-warned.

Since 31 Mar and the grounding of the Nimrod fleet, the UK has had no effective long range SAR cover. Not a good time to have major diversions and the associated low fuel concerns.

[Just wondering]

Not withstanding airport closures - Does anyone know if this will affect low level VFR traffic

[manrow]

Cannot be absolutely certain but the ash cloud is presently afflicting the higher levels, so would expect your vfr flight to be unaffected.

[fisbangwollop]

From the Notam I posted earlier only applies to IFR flights at the moment....In Accordance With Icao Volcanic Ash Contingency Plan, No Ifr
Clearance Will Be Issued For Penetration Of The Forecast Contaminated
Area That Lies Within Uk Airspace. B0687/10

[beamer]

Please please please don't drag Eric Moody out again !

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

<<ALL UK Airspace now CLOSED... >>

That does not appear to be the case at 06:34. Heathrow inbounds are very busy and a Finnair flight has just taken off.. Looks a bit quiet north of London though!

[wiggy]

beamer

Please please please don't drag Eric Moody out again

Too late - he's just been on Sky and to be fair did a decent job of fielding some fairly innane questions from our Charlotte......then again it is a topic he should know something about.

[dolly7]

News channels are reporting that all UK airspace is closed, yet according to Gatwick website, flights are still departing from there. Can anybody clarify please?

[green granite]

According to Heathrow the only cancelled stuff is that heading North, South bound flights are still operating at the moment.

BAA Heathrow: Flight departures today at Heathrow Airport | Live Heathrow Airport departures

[Meeb]

Correction

oops... should have said... Scottish Airspace is closed, all airports in Scotland are closed to Traffic, but looking at the VAAC predictions, more to come unfortunately....