Volcanic Ash Halts Europs Air Traffic

[pilotgallagher01]

Saw this and its quite serious, my mum is leaving for england on Sunday and at this rate probably won't be leaving now..

"All flights between Britain and New Zealand have been cancelled, including Air New Zealand's NZ1 flight from London - Auckland via Los Angeles and NZ38 from London - Auckland via Hong Kong"

"An ash cloud from Iceland's spewing volcano has halted air traffic across a wide swath of Europe, grounding planes on a scale unseen since the 2001 terror attacks as authorities stopped all flights over Britain, Ireland and the Nordic countries."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/358699...rope-air-travel

[Ian Warren]

I heard this on the news over last night , i do miss the news or any viewing off what it must be like in Iceland its self . ... a Nuclear Winter ? maybe

[Splitpin]

When mother nature decides to ground everything........what a mess.

[pilotgallagher01]

It picked a good part of the world didn't it!

[Splitpin]

She sure did......no respect for aviation at all

[bardos]

It's so quiet in the air: no contrails since 1800 yesterday and even no KLM Flight Academy planes today. Maybe the whole circus starts again after 2000 UTC.

[Wildbillkelso]

Yep - very quite indeed!

All northern german airports closed now. Only Munich open for international traffic (up to now...).
Currently we have about 6/10 overcast with some haze on top - dunno if this comes from Iceland...

[deeknow]

Your man DeeKnow has been on the ground during this international disruption, and presents this first hand-report for your edutainment...

I've just got home from Auckland airport after having left on Saturday morning bound for Norway. I got as far as Singapore where by then Frankfurt (and other German, French and UK) airports/space had been almost completely shut down. The news was looking grim and flights to Europe were being cancelled one after the other as they began to appear on the departures board.



I'd flown there with SIA and the staff offered to pay for a hotel for up to two nights to sit out the disruption but by the time my ongoing leg was confirmed as cancelled EVERY hotel in Singapore was fully booked out by stranded passengers. So it was I took up the offer of a loaner sleeping bag and bunked down on the floor in the departure hall with hundreds of others.



As ongoing travel was very marginal I knew that the next ANZ flight back to Auckland was 8am the next morning so got up at about 5am, checked the UK news online, no further chance of flying so reserved a seat back to NZ instead of waiting it out and doin a Tom Hanks (Terminal) impersanation. So it was I got back home late last night.

Was really surprised to see how well everyone was handling it. I mean we really were stuck, no accomodation, no idea of when/if/how ongoing travel would resume. Changi really is an amazingly cool airport, lots to see and do, so you could definately be stuck in worse places. Also, I guess the thing that stopped people getting too excited was that it was a natural disaster, noone to blame, noone specific to get angry at. Although there was one german guy who lost the plot and yelled and bellowed at the staff at the top of his bavarian voice making an ass out of himself.

One other plane-spotting benefit of aircraft being grounded was the huge numbers of 777s and A380s of Singapores that were stuck on the tarmac. Taxiing in I saw 6 A380s alone. Pretty cool sight.



Time to start planning when/if to go back.
Some more aircraft pics here from the weekend if you're interested

[Ian Warren]

Really great HU on the situation Dean , Did you see a report on a A330 where both engines shutdown/kaput on approach to Hong Kong this last week ?

[happytraveller]

Very interesting to read how Singapore Airlines handled the problems. I am currently stuck in Casablanca, Morocco, and Easyjet are of absolutely no help, not even answering the phones. No offers of help, almost total lack of information, and the same problems trying to get hotel rooms. But what can you do??? The airlines here seem to have left everybody on their own, and it is hard to get accurate information. Only simulator flying possible!!!

So I am grounded for the time being!

smooth landings

[pilotgallagher01]

Hope things work out, and i think you should change it to "smooth taxying"

[deeknow]

Bad luck HT, hope things get sorted out for you ASAP. I guess you are really between a rock (or sand in your case) and a hard place. Cant be too many route options out of Morocco

While I was stuck in Singapore I was reading all the news online and seemed like the discount airlines like Ryan, Ezyjet etc are the ones who are taking the most conservative approach as far as when they plan to get back in the air. I wonder if its related to their available slots and maybe they get prioritised down the queue a little by the bigger boys?

[happytraveller]

Sad thing is that there are not even any interesting aircraft to photograph!! Also interesting to read that Icelandair are managing to fly, despite being near to the volcano!!! Hope that you are all sleeping soundly near Rotorua/Taupo......

Now what REX settings can I set up for volcanic cloud............

smooth landings.

[happytraveller]

and for those who are interested, the real world simulator training for volcanic ash:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slmt8CIrTEw

and I found that there is already a FSX mission for a DC-3 flight in Africa after a volcano eruption:-

http://www.fsxrewards.com/missions/specifi...ica_relief.html

smooth landings

[Splitpin]

Casablanca, singapore,norway.......are you guys ever home?......man, i was getting excited about going down to the museum at ashburton!!....

Travel safe guys, i hope it all works out.

HT..."Of all the gin joints in all the citys......" did you find Ricks place?.....have one for me

[TVACGCEO]

QUOTE (Ian Warren @ Apr 16 2010, 01:29 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I heard this on the news over last night , i do miss the news or any viewing off what it must be like in Iceland its self . ... a Nuclear Winter ? maybe

From what im hearing from Alert Station Canada, at current it would be pure luck to get pics from ground zero to within 75 miles. Mainly due to potentiality toxic gases and the fine ash like razors. I have seen a report recent citing lessened ash activity, but the volcanic s under are reported massive and if it let loose it has potentiality to be 100X the current. Again Volcanic Science is 50/50 scale on predictions much like Seismic Science.

Edit my Corporal just handed handed this pic to me. Its just east of the Eruption near Skogan, my apologies if I mispelled the town.

[FlyingKiwi]

Unbelievable, it looks like something out of a movie!

[Splitpin]

Scary stuff.......great pic TVACGCEO....cheers

[Naki]

I guess it could happen here too..actually it has when Ruapehu had a bit of a spew, although not as bad

[victor_alpha_charlie]

QUOTE (Naki @ Apr 19 2010, 07:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I guess it could happen here too..actually it has when Ruapehu had a bit of a spew, although not as bad

Was there much of a disruption? I'm too young to remember but Dad was an Ansett Dash 8 Captain then and has told me of how they flew past Ruapehu while it was erupting.