North Europe hit by volcanic ash

I live quite far down in the southwest of Cornwall,it is a little hazy but quite bright sunshine at the moment,but this morning there was a very fine layer of ash like residue on the table outside.

An air ambulance just went over the house ,very low, in fact just skimming the treetops! Apart from that we have not had any air traffic for two days and we normally have at least 4 or 5 military helicoptors and at least 2 or 3 other kinds of helicoptors,loads of light aircraft and fairly visible airline jets flying over every day.

Amazing, not a single cloud in the sky, maybe most of the clouds we have here are made due the jets from planes...

So it could take a whole year until this all passes?

I'm gonna repost what I posted in the "Eyjafjallajökull Caldera Eruption" thread.

It won't last forever, but there is no way of telling how long this eruption will last.
www.csmonitor.com...
It could even last a few years.
Add on to that the fact that Hekla, another big volcano in Iceland, is pretty punctual in that it erupts every 10 years or so, it erupted in 1970, 1980-1981, 1991 and the last time it erupted was in 2000. Now it's 2010. AND Katla. Katla, as has been mentioned many times in this thread and other threads about the Eyjafjallajökull eruption, has always in the past followed with an even bigger eruption.
www.examiner.com...
Geologists have also warned that Grímsvötn, a volcano in Vatnajökull, the biggest glacier in Iceland that, that last erupted in 2004 might be about to erupt. Seismic activity around Grímsvötn that began around the same time the Eyjafjallajökull eruption began is very similar to that recorded before the 2004 eruption.
www.visir.is...
In this news article Páll Einarsson, a professor of geology at the University of Iceland, warns that Katla, Grímsvötn and Hekla might all erupt in the very near future, and also warns of a possible new site of volcanic activity in Upptyppingar, citing seismic activity characteristic of volcanic eruptions.

[edit on 17-4-2010 by Rev.Fenrir]

Well all flights in Romania are cancelled.
Tv networks said that at 6 pm it is expected that the entire country will be covered with ash.
I live in the north region of the country and the sky is already gray.

I still dont understand why all flights have been cancelled.... its sunny clear sky's outside and i'm sure some of those flights could have easily continued to their destination without running into any kind of ash cloud!!

Especially heading away from te ash cloud!!

Mind you it is better for the Environment that these planes havn't been flying around

[edit on 17-4-2010 by TruthxIsxInxThexMist]

How many days of cancellations would it take for Europe's airlines to go bankrupt?

reply to post by Signals


I've seen that it costs them 200 million$/day...

So probably a long time.

Anyway, we could just bail them out!

Originally posted by Signals
How many days of cancellations would it take for Europe's airlines to go bankrupt?

I thought yours was a very good question ......

So i had abit of a rummage around online . Found this press release from the IATA ....

(International Air Transport Association)

Date: 16 April 2010
Statement - Financial Impact of Icelandic Volcano Ash

The air transport industry is experiencing major disruption of services following the Iceland volcanic eruption. IATA’s initial and conservative estimate of the financial impact on airlines is in excess of US$200 million per day in lost revenues. In addition to lost revenues, airlines will incur added costs for re-routing of aircraft, care for stranded passengers and stranded aircraft at various ports. IATA has set up its crisis center in Montreal and is closely coordinating with Eurocontrol and European air navigation service providers.

link

The IATA represents 220 airlines which comprising 93% of scheduled international air traffic. Bloomberg recently reported that the “Volcanic eruptions in Iceland which this week caused thousands of flights to be canceled may continue for months.”

link







[edit on 17-4-2010 by UmbraSumus]

[edit on 17-4-2010 by UmbraSumus]

[edit on 17-4-2010 by UmbraSumus]

reply to post by Signals

The company also warned Friday it might temporarily lay off up to 2,500 workers in Norway after the weekend if flights remained grounded.

The warning was linked to a requirement by Norwegian law to give employees at least two days notice in these cases, and a company spokeswoman told AFP workers in Sweden and Denmark, where the rules are different, would likely receive a similar warning later.

source

This is the view last evening from 10 miles west of LHR, looking NW.

The ash cloud is supposed to overhead, but there's virtually no sign of it to the naked eye.

The sunset didn't reveal much either, with it just being rather redder, and with a haze only visible close to the sun. Certainly nothing spectacular.

I mean, c'mon, let's get our priorities and sympathies straight.

If the aircraft industry covering the European sectors die down due to prolong volcanic ash in the air ( which is unlikely), or even the airlines companies goes bankrupt, SO BE IT!

They are serving an uneconomical enterprise of 'flying' passengers and cargoes in dangerous areas. Better they go belly up than humans dead if they persists in flying to make a few dollars more.

It would mean thousands in the airline companies of Europe serving European capitals getting laid off, and the a smaller demand for aircrafts by the international aircraft industries, which will also lay off workers.

BUT the truth of the matter is that there is a reason why people and cargo needs to fly, and there lays the solution to workers and companies folding. The market place is all about serving needs. There is a need to get people and cargo from point to point.

Where one industry dies, another blooms to serve that need. And if technology and productivity is incalcated into this new or present industry, it may be one day a better alternative to air travel, if not absorbing the laid off workers as well as offering new entrants a chance for jobs.

The present workers only need to have the mindsets change, relook at their earning capacity and start all over again to reach the top. This is a Nature's created problem, not man-made, and mankind had never let Nature press ourselves down before. We always find ways to work around problems.

Good luck ! :-)

Edit: Some naysayers will as usual claim products and services will become expensive. This is not true, so long as cartels are not allowed. Market forces will regulate demand and supply.

Today, a taxi ride may mercilessly charge $4000 from one European capital to another, but when laid off workers start going into the transportation industries, the cost will spiral down and compettition keen. Furthermore, aircraft redundencies will render lower demand for fuel and price will drop.


[edit on 17-4-2010 by SeekerofTruth101]

Hi, browsed internet for websites such as this and signed up. 1st time user, but wanted to contribute. I have just returned from a holiday in the North of Scotland, witnessed brilliant blue skies and mostly cloud free nights with fantastic views of the stars sitting in a hot tub since the 'ash' shut down the airspace. At no stage did I smell anything different or witness a dusting of any kind for the past week. Drove back down south this morning and with the noticed nothing unusual. I did however on Tuesday morning dash out of the holiday home to the sound of a jet aircraft overhead, which it wasn't, as I looked up all I saw was a long white cylindrical object flying from North to South at warp speed, definetly man made, looked like a military rocket, don't think it should have been that low, especially over civilian area. Strange. Anyway, get the feeling something not right here. Since the Polish govt and military personnel carrying plane crashed, the shutting down of european airspace of which personally i have found no evidence of this volcanic ash, supposed meteorite crash in Wisconsin, USA, which looking at the footage is phenomenal, but alas, no crash site, hmmm..... Does anyone think everything is tied in here ?

finally we are talking about the devastating economical consequences of this. If the eruption continues to go on, and more volcanoes start going off in Iceland, there could be an economic downfall that europe has never seen.

It's very obvious the MSM does not want to address this at this point to avoid mass panic, but it is a reality we have to consider.

reply to post by mister Jones


I think this is exactly the right place to discuss the elephant in the corner that everyone is ignoring, and come up with ideas.

Here's a couple:

Would injecting water into the front of jet engines have the effect of trapping the ash inside superheated steam long enough to prevent it reaching melting point? This may not stop the abrasion or clogging issues however.

Re-arrange the European rail network to allow for fast tracking very long haul point-to-point rail services. I have no idea how compatible the different rail networks are, so perhaps the train-spotters could chip-in.

These current events regarding the volcano eruptions and effects on European airspace really intrigues me. I have a friend who is stuck in London right now. What began as a business trip has now turned into her being stranded in a foreign country. Luckily she knows an American soldier stationed over there. She's getting major pub time now.

An event like this really stresses how powerless the human being is when faced with an awesome show of force by the natural world. I feel like if we as a species got it through our heads that we live on a flying chunk of matter that is bound by its own set of rules, completely independent of our actions, we'd treat our planet better.

Ummm, How about this, we have the planes fly around the ash and then we use some of these Mega-Cruise Ships that are on the Oceans and start transporting people that way.

Am I missing something here?

reply to post by podianna


what u say is very interesting...and why is the jet stream moving in it's current fashion...would love to hear more from you since you are over there...Peace

thougth it was snowing when i woke up , but it wasnt

quite nice to see them ash flakes slowly fall to the ground

Originally posted by ommadawn
reply to post by mister Jones

 

I think this is exactly the right place to discuss the elephant in the corner that everyone is ignoring, and come up with ideas.

Here's a couple:

Would injecting water into the front of jet engines have the effect of trapping the ash inside superheated steam long enough to prevent it reaching melting point? This may not stop the abrasion or clogging issues however.

Re-arrange the European rail network to allow for fast tracking very long haul point-to-point rail services. I have no idea how compatible the different rail networks are, so perhaps the train-spotters could chip-in.

They don't need to re-arrange the European rail network as fast track is already in place but they do need to sort the cost out as it's far more expensive than air travel.

eg. My daughter needed to travel from Aberdeen to Cambridge and the rail far was about 4 times as expensive as flying.

For us to travel from Malaga (Spain) to London by plane can be as low as £20 each (inc. taxes) but by train it costs around £200 - for a family of 5 that is a huge extra cost and that is on the cheapest trains without a cabin when a plane gets me there in about 3 hours (not including waiting at the airport).

Someone mentioned about the economic effects this could have and I can speak from our own experience that the delays are already affecting us personally. We ordered some goods, that are manufactured in Scotland, and others that we get from Germany. They're usually sent by 3 day FedEx and obviously we now have a delay because the goods are being sent by road. We can't get paid until the goods arrive and are installed. The other (building) trades that follow in after us are also having to wait to complete their work and get paid. We're already having to call customers and put back work because of the knock on effect of goods not being here yet. Basically, the no fly area is already beginning to have a bit of a knock on effect for us small businesses/self-employed.

[edit on 17-4-2010 by Maya00a]

Originally posted by The Undertaker
Ummm, How about this, we have the planes fly around the ash and then we use some of these Mega-Cruise Ships that are on the Oceans and start transporting people that way.

Am I missing something here?

edit. I just reread what you said and you're right but I'm not hearing of any offering to provide transport. There's alot of money to be made from this.

[edit on 17-4-2010 by riley]