Icelandic Cloud of Airplane Death - anyone affected

[Scoobyqueen]

Daan - cheers for the link.

Interesting pronunciation of "ll" sounds like "tchl" or something like that.

[jbradfor]

I would love to know how you pronounce the name of the volcano eyjafjällajökull. Does anyone know?

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-04/why-cant-planes-fly-through-volcanic-ash-because-nasa-tried-once

At the bottom. The rest of the article is pretty interesting as well.

[imron]

That link doesn't work.

[adrianlondon]

Oh yes it does!

[imron]

I get a page that says:

'Oops, we're terribly sorry, the page you are looking for could not be found'

and then a search box.

[chrix]

it's working for me...

[Shadowdh]

TBH I think this is a massive storm in a tea cup and look on in bewilderment at the lunacy of those who shut everything down so completely for so long... sure I am not a vulcanologist and I dont have any degrees in avionics but I do have some experience with aircraft and I happen to have lived on a volcano which blew (and lost me a ton of money due to the ski season closing early I might add) and when that happened the immediate area around the crater and downwind was closed (even roads at the time) but nothing else was closed... and from reports that the ash content of the air was 20 times less than the safe limits it seems a massive over reaction... but then what do you expect from a guy who ran one of the UKs worst railways during its worst period of reliability etc...

[jbradfor]

So I learned something today I never knew before due to my USA-centric lifestyle....

In the USA, airlines are required to pay for hotel / meal expenses due to canceled flights ONLY if the flight was canceled due to their fault. So this basically means only mechanical issues, and occasional weirdness such as scheduling issues. For cancellations due to weather or air traffic issues, passengers are pretty much on their own.

By EU law, and this is the new part to me, airlines are required to pay hotel / meal expenses for canceled flights due to any reason. In "normal" times this is just a small cost to the airlines. But now, after 1 week of air travel being canceled, you can image the expense to the airlines. On NPR they had a segment with the head of Ryan air, who at first said that he wouldn't follow EU law and pay, and then backed down and said he would pay but is complaining bitterly.

So what's your take? Who should pay, the passengers or the airlines or the government?

In my mind it should be the passengers. To me, this is a risk one takes when one chooses to travels. Having the airlines pay seems excessive. Having the government pay means that having those that chose not to travel is subsidizing those that did.

[skylee]

The other day I heard someone from Cathay Pacific say on the radio that CX was paying for the accommodation for those passengers who had checked in but could not take off. The spokesperson admitted that it was expensive but this was what they were doing. She didn't mention about those who had not checked in but had been delayed, of course.

Here another problem was that many students studying in the UK could not return to UK having spent the easter holidays in HK. And they might miss their exams. But I think this is no longer a problem.

[renzhe]

FWIW, the German papers are full of angry tourists who are paying for the hotels on Mallorca out of their own pockets.

I'm not sure what the EU regulation says exactly.

[jbradfor]

My understanding from the program is that the law applies to EU based carriers only, not EU based flights. Perhaps this is the difference? Or someone knows more?

[skylee]

So we thought the chaos were over. And we have scheduled another meeting for this wednesday. And that important guy from London is to chair that meeting. And now Heathrow is closed again. Aiyayayaya ~~~

[roddy]

Looks like it's opened again - just in time for the British Airways strike. And I think they're planning to redefine 'safe' again soon . . .

[Shadowdh]

Looks like it's opened again - just in time for the British Airways strike. And I think they're planning to redefine 'safe' again soon . . .

Looks like they have redefined it mate and the strike is off for now till the union can appeal in court against the injunction... safe is now being able to fly for short periods (not specified in the report I heard) with a higher density of ash in the air... although according to a news paper article they closed down the airspace with 10x less the amount that is considered dangerous... but what can you do...

[Lu]

So we thought the chaos were over. And we have scheduled another meeting for this wednesday. And that important guy from London is to chair that meeting. And now Heathrow is closed again. Aiyayayaya ~~~

Perhaps hold a video conference?

During the first ashcloud shutdown there were two PhD graduation ceremonies held over video conference here in Leiden. They held the whole ceremony, with allk the important people in ceremonial garbs, and the candidate defending the thesis, etc etc, except over video.

[skylee]

That guy made the most recent meeting. (We had to reschedule one function and cancel another in April, though.) He doesn't have video conference facilities in where he lives, and has to go to London if we use video conference. And the time difference (7 or 8 hours depending on the season) somehow makes it a bit difficult.

I think video conference could be exhausting. A few months ago I had a meeting with a group of people from different countries and one of them was late because he overslept (because of jetleg and exhaustion, as he flew in from USA and had had a video conference at 2AM local time before my meeting). It was very embarrassing.

[skylee]

And there is another volcano eruption in Iceland. Is this going to be an annual event? Like a carnival or something?

[jbradfor]

Just flew home through Heathrow yesterday. Didn't seem to be an disruption this time, most flights were on time.