Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull Volcano

[nick sussex]

Looking at the models there is a chance that as the low moves east in conjunction with high pressure near Greenland that the ash could be pulled towards the eastern seaboard of the USA and Canada as a strong ne flow develops in the north mid Atlantic, this could impact on transatlantic flight paths.

Really though it looks very good in terms of upper winds by this weekend and into next week with a mainly south to sw flow developing over western Europe, it would be good for the media to start signalling some positive news for the flying public, for people who aren't model anoraks its easy to think that this could go on and on when in reality there is an end in sight.

[jello]

Anymore info on the Flybe Glasgow to Belfast flight which may have suffered damage? Where's this news coming from?

http://volcanicdisruption.co.cc/ not sure if link works. It has been going on and off

[Mondy]

Link works fine. Thanks. Let's see if updates on this occur..

10 BA jets now inbound with rumour has it all arriving "in Scotland" if they can't maanage Heathrow. We shall see later today.

http://flightaware.com/live/fleet/BAW

Glasgow to Reykjavik - airborne 12:30pm.

Mwhahahaha

[Coast]

The airspace around Glasgow Airport has closed again as limited numbers of flights continue to operate to and from Scotland's other airports.

Scottish airspace reopened from 0700 BST after air traffic control company Nats lifted restrictions.

However, planes will only be able to fly in eastern Scotland and part of northern England from 1300 to 1900 BST.

Many island flights scheduled for the afternoon have been cancelled due to changes in the shape of the ash cloud.

news.bbc.co.uk

[Delta76]

Can anyone tell me why the KLM and German carriers are flying over East to West as i speak, i can see a KLM on radar off the east coast about to cross the country. Yet our airspace is shut ?????

[Paul Sherman]

Glasgow to Reykjavik - airborne 12:30pm.

Mwhahahaha

Lol

I wonder what the passengers looked like on that one - Bearded Volcanologists and Thrill seekers going to get a glimpse of Eyajupthingermejig no doubt :lol:

[Mondy]

Can anyone tell me why the KLM and German carriers are flying over East to West as i speak, i can see a KLM on radar off the east coast about to cross the country. Yet our airspace is shut ?????

Provocation, LOL

[Delta76]

Looking at the radar things are just like a normal day over France Germany and Holland who i presume have the ash . A few flying over central England too but not us no not us !!!

[LadyPakal]

Can anyone tell me why the KLM and German carriers are flying over East to West as i speak, i can see a KLM on radar off the east coast about to cross the country. Yet our airspace is shut ?????

As was mentioned earlier I think, flying above a certain height is ok (above the ash) but take off & landing (i.e. going through the ash) is not ok. So planes can go over us but not down or up from the ground.

[Delta76]

As was mentioned earlier I think, flying above a certain height is ok (above the ash) but take off & landing (i.e. going through the ash) is not ok. So planes can go over us but not down or up from the ground.

Thanks for that just got in from work so missed earlier post..... dont europe have ash at lower levels too ?

[dogs32]

12 long haul flights heading for the UK today and 14.000 flights operating in Euro today..

UK virtually 0...

[LadyPakal]

Thanks for that just got in from work so missed earlier post..... dont europe have ash at lower levels too ?

If they do I think it may be at 'low enough concentrations' that they feel money loss outweights safety. Some places are clear, I think - take a look at the meto predictions charts and see.

[Delta76]

KLM17 and KLM641 Just approaching Mablethorpe from the East at 34 and 36,000ft .

[SnowBear]

I think we all should realise that they won't shut UK airspace for no real good reason, it is not a decision that would be taken lightly due to the loss in revenue, chaos and logistic nightmare it will and has caused. The flights you are seeing over the UK by foreign airlines are taking advantage of the allowance of overflights granted at the moment, those flights have attained an altitude whereby they are higher than the ash cloud, this was reported on the BBC as what would be allowed.

[Mondy]

They KLM and LFT flights may be doing what they normally do - following a certain track. I mean tracks A-G will take any European flight over our airspace.

[LadyPakal]

I've heard one plane come in to Aberdeen airport and that was around 8:30-9am I think. Been quiet since apart from a howling gale & rain/sleet/hail.

D'oh, as I write that I hear another coming over - just a small plane though, not a jet.

Edited April 20, 2010 by LadyPakal

[jello]

Anymore info on the Flybe Glasgow to Belfast flight which may have suffered damage? Where's this news coming from?

latest news, seems no damage happened.

[Mondy]

The money is on EDI arrivals for the long haul jets crossing the Atlantic since Glasgow will be shut. Heathrow will be shut too. Busy night ahead for Edinburgh IF these flights arrive here. Failing that, somewhere in south Europe which isn't too clever an idea.

latest news, seems no damage happened.

That's good !

[jello]

Long update this time lol

Latest Update 2:00pm 20/04/2010 New information confirms that Flybe flight BE 128 from Glasgow (GLA) to Belfast (BHD) that arrived at 11:48 AM had not suffered damage, But reports suggest that pilots did experience reduced visibility during the descent into Belfast.

12 long-haul British Airways flights are currently en route to Heathrow, from Beijing, Singapore and the US west coast. These flights are likely to be diverted to alternate airports if Heathrow is still closed, BA has not announced which airports these flights will be diverted to.

Norfolkline Ferries is providing coaches for foot passengers travelling to and from France on Tuesday and Wednesday - it is not normally able to carry foot passengers on the Dover-Dunkirk route.

Inverness, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Newcastle airports open until 7.00pm tonight.

Glasgow, Belfast City and Belfast International Airports. Closed

Manchester Airport and Irish Airspace closed until 7.00pm tonight

London Airports. Closed until further notice

All British Airways short-hall flights have been cancelled

All easjet flights to and from northern europe have been cancelled until 7.00pm

All ryanair flights have been cancelled until 1.00pm Wednesday

All Thomson flights cancelled until Thursday

All Aer Lingus flights have been cancelled until tomorrow morning.

Flights allowed above 22,000ft

No further information available

Next update at 3.00pm

Source: http://volcanicdisruption.co.cc/

Edited April 20, 2010 by jello

[nick sussex]

The money is on EDI arrivals for the long haul jets crossing the Atlantic since Glasgow will be shut. Heathrow will be shut too. Busy night ahead for Edinburgh IF these flights arrive here. Failing that, somewhere in south Europe which isn't too clever an idea.

That's good !

How does Edinburgh stay open whilst Glasgow shuts, surely ash over Glasgow would get to Edinburgh within a very short space of time. None of this makes any sense at all.

[SnowBear]

Just a thought, lets say NATS etc took a risk, and allowed flights knowing there was ash about, over my house there is a plane about every 90 seconds - 2 minutes sometimes...say in a 15 minute period, a pocket of ash comes into their flight path...that could potentially mean 5-7 planes get into trouble all pretty much instantly due to that ash...now, you are an air traffic controller who has now got lets say 5 planes with engine trouble, over populated areas, and all need to land urgently....a nightmare scenario? In one of the busiest air corridors in the world, safety has to be the utmost.

How does Edinburgh stay open whilst Glasgow shuts, surely ash over Glasgow would get to Edinburgh within a very short space of time. None of this makes any sense at all.

I would assume each airport has some way of telling the amount of ash over their airspace, I saw on the BBC they are using lasers somehow to measure the ash etc.

[Serendipity]

How does Edinburgh stay open whilst Glasgow shuts, surely ash over Glasgow would get to Edinburgh within a very short space of time. None of this makes any sense at all.

I would assume it is about flight paths? Perhaps Edinburgh's flight paths allow planes to get to a sufficiently safe height avoiding the ash cloud and Glasgow's don't?

[Coast]

Air traffic controllers monitor new ash cloud

(UKPA) – 33 minutes ago

Air passengers in London have been braced for further delays after warnings that a "new ash cloud" was spreading towards the UK as the volcano eruption in Iceland "strengthened". Air traffic control company Nats said flights before 7pm on Tuesday will now only be allowed in eastern Scotland and part of northern England, excluding the main London airports, including Heathrow.

Earlier, British Airways announced it would aim to resume some flights from London's airports from 7pm on Tuesday. But in light of last night's update from Nats, a BA spokesman said it was "reviewing" its schedule. Nats said in an update earlier on Tuesday: "Since our last statement at 9pm yesterday, the volcano eruption in Iceland has strengthened and a new ash cloud is spreading south and east towards the UK.

"This demonstrates the dynamic and rapidly changing conditions in which we are working. Latest information from the Met Office shows that the situation is variable." While travel organisations warned that it would be some time before travel and airports were back to normal, airlines were counting the cost of the disruption, which has seen a shutdown of UK airports since the end of last week.

BA said the flight ban had cost it around £15 million to £20 million a day. Willie Walsh, BA chief executive, questioned the necessity of the hitherto "blanket ban" on flights, also said that European carriers had asked the EU and national governments for financial compensation.

The British Air Transport Association, with signatories and support from all major UK airlines, wrote to Transport Secretary Lord Adonis asking the Government "to commit to standing behind the industry financially at this very difficult time". British Airways said it had scrapped plans to operate some long-haul flights from Heathrow airport on Tuesday.

The airline said: "Despite the fact that airspace over most European countries is open, UK airspace remains effectively closed. We deeply regret the great inconvenience caused to our customers as a result of Nats' decision to close UK airspace over the last six days

www.google.com

[yukichon]

Thanks for that, just caught it on CNN.

Where are you stranded? I'm currently Florida; we wewre supposed to be flying to Gatwick on Friday. We phoned Virgin Atlantic as soon as we heard and they said the earliest flight we could get was Thursday from Boston...so we snapped it up thinking everything would be back to normal by then!! We have paid $1200 for tickets to Boston from Florida, so we are looking for all the information we can. We had out hopes up after today's rumours of re-opening airspace.

If we don't fly on Thursday the next flight with space on it is the 6th May.

I'm in Chamions Gate Florida near Disney, just as a note , Disney for today and tomorrow are offering free admission to all it's parks like sea world are doing just take proof of your cancelled flight and ID

[LadyPakal]

This is a cool vid... http://http.ruv.straumar.is/static.ruv.is/vefur/20042010_myndir_omar.wmv

See the ripples in the ash clouds - they are shock waves.