Iceland Volcanic Fallout - All UK Flights Grounded 15-04-10

[HAL9000]

In case anyone is travelling by air ...

[ratty]

Am flying Saturday! Hoping it will be sorted by then! :(

[TillieTrotter]

My kids supposed to fly to China tomorrow:(

[omniprescient]

this is retribution for gordon brown using anti-terrorist laws to freeze iceland assets in wake of their banking crash, what goes round, comes round

[Bluerevolution]

No flights before 7am tomorrow

[ratty]

Lets hope that is the end of it!

[Bluerevolution]

ratty Wrote:

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> Lets hope that is the end of it!

But then there is the backlog and planes in the wrong airports, might take days to rectify

[Ladymuck]

From where I am standing, I am rather enjoying the absence of the usual noise pollution caused by aeroplanes flying over. Must be a pain for those wishing to get somewhere though.

Also, I haven't seen any evidence of volcanic dust on cars/windows etc. - yet. Should I hang my washing out? What about the pond, should I cover it over? It's packed full of mating newts.

[Brendan]

Bloody Icelandishers.

They use their volcanoes to heat their homes and generate electricity. It?s wouldn?t be a massive leap to start using them as international weapons is all I?m saying.

They?ll probably claim that it?s carbon neutral and all?

Bastards.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Here?s a tip for Sky/BBC/whoever news ? Save some money by NOT sending crew and cameras to ask stranded passengers how they feel.

You already know how they feel, we know how they feel and nothing whatsoever will be added to the sum of human knowledge

[Brendan]

Yeah. They can use email or twitter.

And Gareth from Birmingham says?, ?It?s a disgrace. The taxpayer funds global warming through the recession and this is how the government repays us. I know where my vote is going when I get home from Faliraki.?

[HAL9000]

Ladymuck Wrote:

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> I haven't seen any evidence of volcanic dust

> on cars/windows etc. - yet.

The ash plume is being blown over the UK and Northern Europe at an altitude of about 20,000 feet by the Jet Stream. We're unlikely to see much, if any, ash or dust at ground level for the time being. Commercial aircraft fly at 30,000 feet, hence the groundings.

[Moos]

Hmm, what do we think are the odds of my getting my 7.50 flight tomorrow morning?

[ratty]

Moos Wrote:

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> Hmm, what do we think are the odds of my getting

> my 7.50 flight tomorrow morning?

Sadly very poor I would think!

I will be so sad to miss this holiday - booked because of a family tragedy at Xmas meaning we wanted to have something to look forward to! :(

[legalbeagle]

Oh dear Moos, not good. All non emergency flights in and out of the UK are stopped until at least 7am tomorrow morning according to the Beeb.

[Moos]

Just stopped being a beazle and actually checked the website - all Cityjet flights out of City Airport (well known for falling over at the drop of a hat) are cancelled all day tomorrow.

Ratty - so sorry about your holiday, poor you. I hope you can resume a day late?

As for me it's a tedious work thing, so I don't mind much - just have to do it next week.

[Moos]

Latest announcement at work:

A volcanic eruption in Iceland has created an ash cloud that is currently travelling in an easterly direction. As a result, restrictions by UK National Air Traffic (NATS) are in place.

?UK airspace remains closed until 0700 UK time tomorrow

?All short haul services departing from or arriving into LHR or LGW up to 1000 UK time will be cancelled

?All departures from LHR, LGW and LCY will be cancelled for the rest of the day from 1130 UK time (all UK domestic flights have already been cancelled for today)

?This applies to all airlines

?Some flights from the USA (BA292/296/68) have been nightstopped and others already airborne may be diverted (BA228/192/264/188).

?Further disruption is likely as a second eruption has occurred in closer to Finland and Russia.

[Ladymuck]

HAL9000 Wrote:

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>...We're unlikely to see

> much, if any, ash or dust at ground level for the

> time being...

Thank you for that HAL9000. Newts may carry on mating without fear of contamination of their environment.

[indiepanda]

Moos Wrote:

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> Latest announcement at work:

>

> A volcanic eruption in Iceland has created an ash

> cloud that is currently travelling in an easterly

> direction. As a result, restrictions by UK

> National Air Traffic (NATS) are in place.

> ?All short haul services departing from or

> arriving into LHR or LGW up to 1000 UK time will

> be cancelled

Ah, where did you hear this? The air traffic control web site has only confirmed no flights up till 7am tomorrow and Gatwick's says 8 am. Rather expecting I won't be making my trip to Lake Como tomorrow :-( Is due to go 7.15 am - and am guessing it'd be lucky for the plane to be at Gatwick ready for us even if they were willing to let it take it off late.

[ratty]

Looking worse by the hour to be honest. Even if the ash disperses the delays will be horrendous. Cannot say how gutted I am. :(

[Marmora Man]

Ladymuck Wrote:

What about the pond, should I cover it over? It's packed full of mating newts.

Can I swap frogspawn for newts? we have newt free pond.

[Mark]

To follow on from Sean's point about shite broadcasting, the BBC's website has a pathetic Live: Volcanic cloud over Europe page which says:

"...the volcanic cloud could lead to two more days of disruption" and " Time to recap... The cloud emitting from the volcano in Iceland is still drifting south-east into Europe. Air traffic has been grounded ... When will it end? Nobody knows."

First Panorama goes tabloid and now the website 'news' gets peppered with bolded phrases like that. When will it ever end?

Sorry to hear about people's flights, I've got one in three weeks and I'm actually starting to get anxious about that.

[The Minkey]

Sorry to hear about your flights, folks. There's no messing with Mother Nature, once she's on the war path.

[HAL9000]

It all depends on what the volcano does, of course, but my 'JetStream' link above points to a seven-day Jet Stream forecast for the North Atlantic area by the Met Office. It doesn't look good for the week ahead, as far as I can see.

An Icelandic geologist said that it could keep spewing ash like this for the next five years - nobody knows!

Apparently, the slightest trace of volcanic ash will rapidly degrade a jet engine. Jet aircraft that fly anywhere near an ash plume must have their engines overhauled according to an FAA directive following an incident during the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991. If that is the case, I doubt any airline will risk incurring such a huge expense if it can be avoided.

[Moos]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, IP - especially since you're going to one of my favourite places in the world.

Announcement I posted was from BA via our corporate travel agent. I also checked the website of the company I was flying with from City Airport (Cityjet) and they confirmed all of their flights planned for tomorrow have been cancelled.

One of my colleagues stuck in Bangalore tells me that our business travel insurance company advised her that the 'worst case scenario' is that this will go on for 5 days 'or more'. But that sounds like ultra-prudent insurance company talk.