The Eyjafjallajokull Volcano Shuts Down European Transport System

Filed in archive Aviation News on April 17, 2010

After all the strikes that shut down European airlines in the past few weeks, you'd think Mother Nature would have the sense not to kick somebody while they're down. But apparently the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland didn't get the memo. On April 14th, the volcano began spewing volcanic ash 35,000 feet into the air, shutting down airspaces all across Europe.

But why are flights being shut down because of the ash? Actually, it has nothing to with reduced visibility as you might have thought, because the airplanes can use their instruments to get through. But ash has the unfortunate quality of getting into aircraft engines and shutting them down. So all in all, it's good that the airlines are shutting down flights.





All the airports in the UK were shut down until at least Saturday, as were airports in Scandinavia, France, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Poland, and... you get the picture. All of Northwestern, and North-Central Europe has shut down its airspace.Only emergency flights are permitted to take off, and they have to stay underneath 30,000 feet.

The perils of volcanic ash in the air have been illustrated before. In 1982 a British Airways 747 flying from Perth to Kuala Lampur entered an ash cloud at 37,000 feet. The engines didn't like that, and all 4 shut down. The plane became a glider and slowly drifted downwards till 12,000 feet before the engines turned back on, and the plane made a safe landing in Jakarta.





Now the airlines are just getting walloped by this. Every day, they are losing at least a couple hundred million dollars a day. SAS is temporarily laying of 2500 workers in Norway, and will lay off more in other countries as well. And airlines from other countries are being hammered as well. Airlines like Singapore Airlines, Qantas, and Delta have all canceled flights to Europe, which has screwed up aircraft positioning.

Travelers are being hard hit as well. Thousands have been stranded, just as the holiday season begins to pick up. Trains, buses, and even rental cars are completely booked, leaving passengers stuck at airports. The French rail operators who went on strike didn't exactly help matters. With flights not operating, people who need to get back home for business are costing their companies money. So the total economic impact of the eruption is much greater than just $200 million.

As long as Eyja keeps spewing out the hot stuff, Europe will be shut down. Funnily enough, Iceland's airspace hasn't been closed because the ash is blowing the other way!!

Link to satellite image of cloud: http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/realtime/single.php?2010105/crefl1_143.A2010105113500-2010105114000.250m.jpg

Flickr Credits:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/caribb/196815033/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulclement/3380951622/