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Current Events => Breaking News => Topic started by: Ralph Wiggum on April 15, 2010, 08:40:37 AM

Title: Britain Closes Airspace as Volcanic Ash Spreads
Post by: Ralph Wiggum on April 15, 2010, 08:40:37 AM
(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/04/16/world/16ashspan-cnd/16ashspan-cnd-articleLarge.jpg)

British civil aviation authorities ordered the closing of the country’s airspace as of noon on Thursday to shield aircraft from a high-altitude cloud of ash drifting south and east from an erupting volcano in Iceland. The plume shut down airports and forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights in a wide arc from Ireland to Scandinavia.

The closure was among the most sweeping peacetime restrictions ordered in British airspace. It left airplanes stranded on the tarmac as the rolling cloud — made up of minute particles of silicate that can damage airplane engines — headed from Britain and Scandinavia toward northern Europe. News reports said Denmark and Sweden also had restricted air travel, while Belgium was about to.

“From midday today until at least 6 p.m., there will be no flights permitted in U.K.-controlled airspace other than emergency situations,” Britain’s National Air Traffic Service said in a statementon its Web site. “This has been applied in accordance with international civil aviation policy.”

Matthew Watson, a specialist in the study of volcanic ash clouds from Bristol University in England, said the plume was “likely to end up over Belgium, Germany, the Lowlands — a good portion over Europe” and was unlikely to disperse for 24 hours,” meaning that airports were likely to remain closed longer than initially forecast.

The move effectively grounded all flights in Britain from 11 a.m. local time and affected an estimated 6,000 flights that use British airspace every day, aviation experts said. Oddly, for travelers, the closing was announced under clear blue skies. Experts had said earlier that the ash may not be visible from the ground.

More at NY Slimes Link (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/world/europe/16ash.html?src=me)
Title: Re: Britain Closes Airspace as Volcanic Ash Spreads
Post by: Wineslob on April 15, 2010, 09:41:19 AM
I wonder how this will affect Climate Change and will Algore demand carbon credits?
Title: Re: Britain Closes Airspace as Volcanic Ash Spreads
Post by: djones520 on April 15, 2010, 09:42:15 AM
Man I'm glad I'm not at work right now....
Title: Re: Britain Closes Airspace as Volcanic Ash Spreads
Post by: IassaFTots on April 15, 2010, 10:13:02 AM
What a mess that is.  Not the ash, but the cancellation of all of those flights.  Wow.
Title: Re: Britain Closes Airspace as Volcanic Ash Spreads
Post by: djones520 on April 15, 2010, 10:20:08 AM
It's not just British flights that are affected though.  The prime corridor for aircraft crossing the Atlantic is right through that region.
Title: Re: Britain Closes Airspace as Volcanic Ash Spreads
Post by: Chris on April 15, 2010, 10:20:51 AM
(http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff68/kayaktn/500x_pinatubo-volcano-plane.jpg)
http://jalopnik.com/5517775/how-volcanic-ash-can-kill-an-airplane

Holy crap.
Title: Re: Britain Closes Airspace as Volcanic Ash Spreads
Post by: IassaFTots on April 15, 2010, 10:21:41 AM
It's not just British flights that are affected though.  The prime corridor for aircraft crossing the Atlantic is right through that region.

I know.  I would imagine that impact will be felt all over the world to some degree.    
Title: Re: Britain Closes Airspace as Volcanic Ash Spreads
Post by: Ralph Wiggum on April 15, 2010, 10:43:53 AM
(http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff68/kayaktn/500x_pinatubo-volcano-plane.jpg)
http://jalopnik.com/5517775/how-volcanic-ash-can-kill-an-airplane

Holy crap.

Yeah, weird.  I read about that story when I googled this one.
Title: Re: Britain Closes Airspace as Volcanic Ash Spreads
Post by: jinxmchue on April 15, 2010, 10:45:07 AM
(http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff68/kayaktn/500x_pinatubo-volcano-plane.jpg)
http://jalopnik.com/5517775/how-volcanic-ash-can-kill-an-airplane

Holy crap.

That, my friend, is a serious understatement.   :o
Title: Re: Britain Closes Airspace as Volcanic Ash Spreads
Post by: Chris on April 15, 2010, 11:10:42 AM
Isn't this the volcano everyone was ooh-ing and ahhh-ing at last month?

Quote
Eyjafjallajokull

huh?
Title: Re: Britain Closes Airspace as Volcanic Ash Spreads
Post by: jinxmchue on April 15, 2010, 12:25:12 PM
Isn't this the volcano everyone was ooh-ing and ahhh-ing at last month?

huh?

What did you call me?   :censored:
Title: Re: Britain Closes Airspace as Volcanic Ash Spreads
Post by: IassaFTots on April 15, 2010, 12:46:45 PM
What did you call me?   :censored:

A Eyjafjallajokull.

 :-)
Title: Re: Britain Closes Airspace as Volcanic Ash Spreads
Post by: Chris_ on April 15, 2010, 03:31:36 PM
(http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff68/kayaktn/500x_pinatubo-volcano-plane.jpg)
http://jalopnik.com/5517775/how-volcanic-ash-can-kill-an-airplane

Holy crap.

Well....maybe not dead, but Waaaaaaaaay out of the "weight and balance" envelope..........

doc
Title: Re: Britain Closes Airspace as Volcanic Ash Spreads
Post by: littlelamb on April 15, 2010, 10:56:37 PM
I thought I heard wrong on the radio on the drive home from work I guess not
Title: Re: Britain Closes Airspace as Volcanic Ash Spreads
Post by: docstew on April 18, 2010, 07:50:05 AM
well, made it home yesterday, flew cross-Atlantic, but it seemed that they kept us much more southerly than would be normal.
Title: Re: Britain Closes Airspace as Volcanic Ash Spreads
Post by: Chris on April 18, 2010, 08:03:37 AM
Glad you made it back okay. :cheersmate:
Title: Re: Britain Closes Airspace as Volcanic Ash Spreads
Post by: The Village Idiot on April 18, 2010, 01:35:43 PM
[img width=500 height=340]http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff68/kayaktn/500x_pinatubo-

"Dang did someone put all the heavy cargo in the back??"

"Uh, maybe, why do you ask?"

"Oh, no reason"
Title: Re: Britain Closes Airspace as Volcanic Ash Spreads
Post by: Chris on April 18, 2010, 02:02:42 PM
"Dang did someone put all the heavy cargo in the back??"

"Uh, maybe, why do you ask?"

"Oh, no reason"

It was the same guys that built this thing. (http://www.conservativecave.com/index.php/topic,42850.0.html)
Title: Re: Britain Closes Airspace as Volcanic Ash Spreads
Post by: The Village Idiot on April 18, 2010, 02:09:44 PM
It was the same guys that built this thing. (http://www.conservativecave.com/index.php/topic,42850.0.html)

FAIL Design Bureau works cheap
Title: Re: Britain Closes Airspace as Volcanic Ash Spreads
Post by: BlueStateSaint on April 18, 2010, 05:45:34 PM
There's a larger volcano on Iceland not far from the one that's been blowing its' stack, and if it goes, a volcanologist that NBC's Chris Jansing had on (my wife was watching it) said that it would be "100 times worse."  If that one goes, Europe can pretty much hang it up for this growing season.
Title: Re: Britain Closes Airspace as Volcanic Ash Spreads
Post by: Peter3_1 on April 30, 2010, 07:00:25 PM
Reports show that there was no reason to cancel all the flights. Re route southerly and fly a little lower would hae done it, and the Brits may have known all along....