Your Flight Has Been Cancelled Due To A Volcano Eruption…
Anyone who moderate travel experience has heard all sorts of delay explanations announced. The most common delays and cancellations are simply “weather” or “mechanical” … but today and for the next few days one of the more rare natural disaster delays and cancellations reasons will be give to passengers throughout Europe … Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupting. This is the volcano’s second eruption in two months … and its first series of eruptions in 200 years … is an estimated 20-times more powerful than the eruption last month.
As of today the ash clouds filling in the skies from the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano has spread ash high into the air and is traveling slowly with the winds. Ash in the skies is dangerous to aircraft as it not only limits visibility, but it can also cause damage to aircraft engines, in some cases shutting down an aircraft’s engine.
On 15-December-1989, KLM Flight 867, a Boeing 747-406M, encountered a volcanic ash cloud over Alaska. The volcanic ash entering the engines caused all four engines to shut down and the aircraft drop more than 14,000 feet before the pilots were able to restart the engines and land the aircraft safely in Anchorage, Alaska. The damage caused by the volcanic ash to the four engines of the 747 cost an estimated US$80mil to repair.
On 24-June-1982, an incident similar to the KLM incident occurred when British Airways Flight 9, a Boeing 747-236B, flying from Madras to Kuala Lumpur, flew through a volcanic cloud, causing all four engines to fail. The crew was able to glide the aircraft safely the 747 out of the ash, restart the engines and safely make an emergency landing in Jakarta.
The large ash cloud now sits over the airspace covering large portions of airspace used by European Airports, including the many airports in United Kingdom, Amsterdam, Geneva Brussels, Oslo, Paris, as well as other major European airports.
Interestingly enough, the weather patterns moving the large ash clouds have allowed Iceland’s capital airport of Keflavík International Airport, in Reykjavík, remains open.
If you are flying from Europe or to Europe today, you should check with your airline regarding flight delays or cancelations.
Below are two graphics of the volcanic ash clouds impacting the airspace over Europe.
Happy Flying!
[...] Flying with Fish has a nice recap of why volcanic ash is so dangerous to aircraft. Here in the Pacific frequent flyers are somewhat used to cancellations or route detours to avoid ash clouds – especially around Indonesia but also throughout the “ring of fire”. In Europe it is more unusual. [...]
[...] Following yesterday’s massive and unprecedented airspace closure over Europe yesterday due to …caused by the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano much of Europe’s airspace remains closed today. [...]
I never would have expected volcanic ash to be a problem before I moved to the Caribbean to go to vet school. I live on St. Kitts, a mere 60-something miles away from the active volcano on the island of Montserrat. Checking ash fall, wind direction, and flight status has become a regular part of my travel life. I never really realized WHY ash was such a problem. Now I know! Thanks for the info!
Becky
It seems airlines are not big fans of aircraft suffering multiple engine failures and multiple millions of dollars in repairs. Volcanic ash is very damaging to the internal component of a jet engine.
Happy Flying!
-Fish
[...] Following yesterday’s massive and unprecedented airspace closure over Europe yesterday due to volc…caused by the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano much of Europe’s airspace remains closed today. [...]
[...] Two days ago a historic moment occurred at London’s Gatwick International Airport … however it happened a nine days later than planned considering much of Europe’s airspace had been closed due to a volcanic ash cloud. [...]
[...] when you thought looming volcanic ash cloud looming over Europe that closed the airspace for days on end in mid-April had gon… … its [...]