Hey there,

Airline passengers are facing disruption across the UK after an ash cloud from a volcanic eruption in Iceland grounded planes news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8621407.stm

The BA website has been updated with the latest information on cancellations and refund/rebooking options due to the volcanic eruption http://bit.ly/cSII0t

Be sure to check here if you’re flying BA today!

Christina

UK airspace is closed to all flights to at least 6:00pm UK time (GMT +1), BA have cancelled all flights today and possible tomorrow. Massive disruptions reported in other northern European countries

From one report about why they closed the air space:

"In 1989, a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Boeing 747 flew into an ash cloud from Alaska's Redoubt volcano and lost all power, dropping from 25,000 feet to 12,000 feet (7,500 meters to 3,600) before the crew could get the engines restarted. The plane landed safely.

In another incident in the 1980s, a British Airways 747 flew into a dust cloud and the grit sandblasted the windscreen. The pilot had to stand and look out a side window to land safely."

One idiotic response: "It's so ridiculous it is almost amusing," said Cambridge University researcher Rachel Baker, 23, who had planned to meet her American boyfriend in Boston but got no farther than Heathrow.

I think people picture this as just like flying through clouds. It's not. The ash is gritty and it gets sucked into engines and corrodes them. That Cambridge professor should be glad she's safe on the ground.

The part about the pilot having to "stand and look out a side window to land safely" is nonsense (do you think he opened the window to look out?), but the story of the BA flight is chilling: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_9

Rizutto,
Why is is "nonsense"???? If the front window was damaged he would have to look out of SOMETHING??

I would expect that looking sideways would give him the ablility to see the markings he needed.

Why is it nonsense? Because first of all he would <u>never</u> stand up. And because the external information that he needs -- in particular, the runway -- is in front of the aircraft, not out the side. And because any forward-facing part of the window would have been similarly damaged.

And, no, he would not necessarily have had to look out of "something." In the event, the co-pilot read out the altitude every few seconds at specific distances from the runway threshold. The pilot could make out the runway lights through the windshield, but it was like looking through eyeglasses that are the wrong prescription and covered on both sides with grease.

The idea that the pilot would "stand and look out a side window to land safely" is a child of the imagination of someone who has never sat in the cockpit of an airplane.

Latest on the UK is that flights are suspended until at least 18:00UTC on the 16th. Also many western European airports are closed until similar times

There are a couple of TATL flights to/from Glasgow but that's about it

To see how bare European airspace is see http://www.flightradar24.com/

Hey there,

ba.com has also been updated with the latest flight details for today http://bit.ly/cSII0t. As of now, the statement is that "All British Airways flights operating to and from Heathrow and Gatwick airports will be cancelled until at least 7pm local time on Friday."

Please don't go to the airport if your flight has been cancelled.

If/as there are updates, I'll try to flag them up here!

Christina

Christina_BA: Thanks for your updates; it's nice to have an "official" BA presence here.

AlanRow-thanks for the link to the flight radar website!

I just got back from the gym, a fellow that I know spoke to someone, who spoke to someone who spoke to the maid who knows the maid of an important geologist who said...this will go on for weeks or months

I've heard on tv, the ashes get some rock-like particles in them, so it's not like flying in a cloud. Those rocks can damage the engines and windshields, this is why the planes are grounded.

Whatever it is, it sucks

Volcanic ash is typically an extremely fine dust (fine like wheat flour). It is composed of rock and glass blown out of a volcano while molten. The dust particles are very different from ordinary sand. Sand particles are round under a microscope; volcanic ash particles are sharp and jagged, like little razors. Volcanic ash can chew through metal and glass in minutes. It has the effect of a sandblaster. In jet engines, it simply chews away the moving parts, and melts as it reaches the combustion chambers, covering parts with a coating of glass that causes them to overheat, seize, or slow to a stop.

Volcanic ash is bad for health, too, as those microscopic razor particles can damage the lungs. Fortunately, as long as it stays up high, it's a risk only for aircraft.

In any case, the risk is very real.

By the way, pilots don't need to be able to see out the windows at all to land. Just about all airliners today are equipped for autoland, which allows the pilots to land completely under computer control in low visibility, at major airports. However, volcanic ash can interfere with radar and radio systems, too, so this autoland equipment isn't guaranteed to work if ash is interfering with it. The ash may also knock out electronic and electric systems on the plane, making it impossible to land by computer. Then you need windows, but if the ash has sandblasted the windows, you're out of luck.

continues


""On Saturday, the French prime minister extended the closure of airspace in northern France until Monday morning. British and German airspace is closed until at least 0000 GMT Sunday (8 p.m. EDT Saturday), and British Airways is canceling all short-haul flights to and from London airports Sunday. The Belgian, French and Swiss governments extended their ban until Saturday evening.

Stranded passengers reported the delays were causing financial hardships. Some had to check out of hotels and sleep in the airports.
""

My husnband's flight home from Germany tomorrow has been cancelled--he's not re-booked until Wednesday, the soonest I could get.