One of the curious things about any company is that the owners make decisions, and the major owner make the most important decisions.

Amongst these you will find the appointment/approval of board members and executives.

.... and closing the airspace or eventually opening it up again :ugh:

The folks down at the shop floor (or in front of that radar screen) aren't normally privy to these discussions.

But nobody has said how close to the really thick stuff he went. Knowing some fighter-jocks, they went quite close indeed.

That's why we need more data. That's why Willie Walsh is following my suggestion to fly a 747 through the ash.

pleeeze get off the back of NATS - the Air Traffic Service [you know, don't bump into each other, that sort of thing?] ;)

Aircraft operations are determined by the CAA and the Operating Company ... and a whole bunch of other people too!

Some French airports in the south have reopened
 

The French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has just announced that airports South of an axis Nice Bordeaux have reopened (Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, etc.) this Sunday afternoon.

North of this axis the airports will remain closed until Tuesday morning.

may i suggest a solution i have not heard yet
--- flight plan all flights BELOW 20k feet till clear of ash. I KNOW .lots more fuel but if worked out and tickets charged accordingly there yiou are . even long haul flights could be planned to climb after cloud and continue . most have the fuel capacity . i stand back and await brickbats
Good theory, if it weren't for all recent Met forecasts showing no significant ash ABOVE 20k.... It's the getting up there that's at issue. But I agree, If you can get up there, through the mess fast enough, and "blow out" the muck, you're good, till you have to get through it on descent....

.... and does not know when the damage actually occurred, but swear that everything looked great at last inspection 3 months ago :ok:

The NATS board gave free rein to the previous CEO and the new incumbent has the same freedom.
Sigh, as I have explained several times in this thread it is NOT NATS decision just as it is not any of the other ANSPs in Europes decision. It is a government decision, the ANSPs, as the name suggests, are Service Providers and operate within the licence and regulations laid down by governments etc.

BD

FAAM
 

Anyone heard anything from the Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurement aircraft G-LUXE ?
Has lots of bits and bobs fitted, not sure if its any good in this situation but would have thought so.

BAW9156 (Test flight) has just got airborne out of Heathrow 27R. To conduct a 3hr test flight to Cardiff.

Is that first flight out of LHR since Thursday then?

KL867
 

All four engines failed leaving only critical systems on backup electrical power. One report assigns the engine shutdown to the turning of the ash into a glass coating inside the engines that fooled the engine temperature sensors and led to an auto-shutdown of all four engines.

When all four main generators shut off due to the failure of all the engines, a momentary power interruption occurs when the flight instruments transfer to standby power. Standby power on the 747-400 is provided by two batteries and inverters. The captain performed the engine restart procedure which was not successful on the first few attempts and was repeated until restart was achieved. On some of the attempts, as one or more (but not all) engines started to operate, the main generator would switch back on. This switching on and off caused repeated power transfer interruptions to the flight instruments. The temporary blanking of the instruments gave the appearance that standby power had failed. These power transfers were later verified from the flight data recorder.

After descending more than 14,000 feet, Captain Karl van der Elst and crew were finally able to restart the engines and safely land the plane. In this case the ash caused more than us 80 million in damage to the aircraft (requiring all four engines to be replaced), but no lives were lost and no one was injured.As of 2010, the aircraft is still in service with KLM under the KLM Asia livery.


Dutch are stupid but also lucky sometimes :)

Thnx for the video, and offcourse i agree safety first.
Lets not forget also in this case the flight went through very thick cloud of dust. !!!

'tis hangared and under heavy maintenance . . bad timing :(

With the levels of eg. British citizens now stuck abroad, and the possible length of time this may continue, the eventual repatriation effort might turn into a humanitarian one ! Might we see the British government(election pending) stepping in or can the airlines and charter operators cope to bring this to a swift end.
JMO :bored:

Maybe ash encounter can have had the mentioned effect on the fighter engines.

But: How did these Engines look BEFORE the flight into the cloud?
Hopefully engineering at LH, KLM, AUA, BA,... that were doing very publicity effective flights with their bosses on board of one single aircraft (!!) have got a very good documentation about the state of the engines directly before todays departure.
If not, it either looks like nothing else than normal wear or "almost total destruction", depending on what you want to see.
They need data to compare, not just a few pictures to create an illusion!

FAAM hangared on heavy check
 

Timing is everything......... Surely the D check schedule should have the odd volcanic eruption factored into the plan !

Oh well, I guess its back to Willie and his Jumbo.

Plane over Belgium?
 

Anyone know what is flying over Belgium right now? Flightradar only gives callsign "111"? Almost at French Border...

BA has cancelled all London flights on monay 19th.
RYR has cancelled all UK flights until wednesday!

Flight 111 = Reg Code : D-AHFP according to Radar Virtuel

50% of flights in Europe tomorrow
 

Breaking News from a press conference by Eurocontrol. They are hoping 50% of flights in europe will be able to operate tomorrow. Some good news at last!:ok:

ETOPS implications
 

It's not simply engine failures during volcanic ash exposure that needs to be considered.

Is it not possible that a period of significant ash exposure may have implications for engine in-flight shutdown (IFSD) rates in the weeks and months to come? Is it safe to assume that engines that have spent significant time operating in ash environments will have the same IFSD rates as those that have not?

ETOPS certification depends on statistical assumptions based on IFSD rates. If ash exposure leads to changes in IFSD rates then these assumptions may no longer be valid. The fact that both engines on an airframe will likely share the same recent history of ash exposure is also relevant.

Well, there we go, KLM starts flying commercially tonight. No passengers, only freight, but still. According to the CEO European airspace is safe with the exception of parts between Iceland and Russia.

Hope the rest follows soon.