pomtastic

Has anyone else noticed the crazy weather, volcanoes erupting, earthquakes, tsunamis the world has been having of late?

It seems like a weekly occurance now, didn't seem to happen as frequently, even a couple of years back.

coolshadows

I think these types of events are now more commonly reported with far more depth than they ever where.

Dorutland

And your understanding of the effects of glass and stone on turbines comes from where? The same place as your understanding of aerodynamics and meteorology?

Amazulu

I think you might be on to something but incidents like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_9
have made the authorities ultra-cautious.

Wol

We are, of course, not in possession of all the facts. Engine turbine temperatures are above the melting point of most volcanic particles but surely the density of these in the air must come into the argument too? Thousands of tonnes of meteoric dust of similar composition enter the atmosphere each year and that miniscule amount causes no problems. Aircraft regularly avoid Indonesian, Alaskan and other areas' volcanoes by far fewer miles than the UK is from Iceland and, even when you can smell the sulphur, no harm is done.

I just have to wonder what is so different here to what goes on in many other parts month in month out.

Wol

Something like that <g>.

A little knowledge is.........

Pollyana

Knowing your background I was interested to read your viewpoint on it, I have heard opposing ones from people currently closer to the action too. One of those situations where they are beng over-cautious maybe, although I am in favour of treating a cloud like this with respect!
(And being purely selfish, the more Qantas gets disrupted the better )

butterfly1234

hi all, just an quick update, all flights into the uk have now been cancelled til at least sunday.

chilliman

Im in perth airport at the mo, flying to Singapore then onto China .... there are alot of worried travellers here who should be on this flight heading onto the UK, no-one seems to know whether to fly to singapore or not!?!

comet10

Im meant to be flying out with Singapore airlines tomorrow from Heathrow and have a gut feeling i will not be on the plane!!

My husband has already been out in Queensland for past 2 weeks and i was meant to be joining him to start our new life together!!
Everything is now on hold and very ( understatement!!) frustrating. Cant even plan when im going to get out there!!

Anyone else in the same position??!!!

moocow

i am ment to be flying home to Aus on Monday witha toddler. I am not looking forward to a packed plane in the next few days. Waiting till monday to call travel agent to get flight defered until the end of the week and mayhem disapears from heathrow.

koalakim

The ash just isn't ash - it contains bits of other stuff as well, glass and sand which isn't too good for aircraft engines!

I remember having to research the article on the BA flight when I worked on an aviation magazine for one of the stewardesses on board. The conversation I had with her was quite a long time ago but I remember being pretty amazed how the whole crew handled the situation.

It's not uncommon for airspace to be closed when ash is in the air - you just don't get to here about it. We were on a flight to Antigua when the Monseratt volcano was active and fortunately we got to land but the following flights all had to be diverted as it sent another lot of ash up in the air. We sat on the beach and watched it puff away all week!

The disruption and cost to people, airlines, business is going to be horrendous. We all live in fear of planes being grounded by terrorists - not volcanos!

I know this affects all of Europe but you can't help feeling sorry for another thing happening to good old Blighty who's only just recovered after the snow! Apparently so much was wiped off BA's shares the other day because of it, so I'm guessing for all of us waiting for the pound to recover this isn't going to help.

I just feel very sorry for the people who are on holiday and have no rellies to stay with etc, it's going to cost them a fortune in extra hotel bills etc. Lets hope everyone does what they can to ease the pain.

I've just been doing an event where two Brits are stranded in Mellie for an extra few days as they weren't even allowed to fly as far as the airlines hub (ie Dubai, Singapore etc) but at least as they were on business they can use the local office but families stranded must be awful!

Lets hope it clears quickly but they did say the volcano could rumble on for months - I'm due to fly in a month so I hope it's dormant between mid-May and the end of June!

Hope all BE'ers are okay.

KK

Pollyana

I do admit to a large feeling of guilt about tbis. I am probably stuck in the UK for a week longer than expected. I have close friends in the airline industry who ar worried about the knock-on effects of this, and I have BE friends who are stranded where they don't want to be.
Yet part of me is being really selfish and saying I can get an extra few days out of this, I have some wonderful friends who are helping me plan how/where to stay, and it certainly is working well for me so far. I am genuinely sorry for those who are stuck with nowhere to stay, but I have come to realise I can't affect events like this, all I can do is live with them, and next time, when I'm not so lucky, I hope someone will remind me of this occasoin when things worked in my favour for once.

koalakim

Very true Polly!

I just hope employers are understanding about all this and no one looses their jobs!

markbhx

I blame the internet... now we get live videos as it happens!! In the 80's it woud be some grainy black and white pic of something that happened weeks ago.