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Recent Icelandic Volcanic Eruption Shuts down UK Airspace

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  • Recent Icelandic Volcanic Eruption Shuts down UK Airspace



    Looks like it is a bigger situation/problem than we originally thought.

  • #2
    We were lucky with Mt. St Helens. The ash clouds were huge, but winds carried them only in the direction of smaller airports. However, flights from Seattle were probably forced out of usual routes east.

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    • #3
      I am about to leave to FRA and head to ORD. Usually we pass the UK and then pretty much via Iceland to ORD... Let's see what will happen today. I don't have any information about the routing yet, but I will see what they will do.

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      • #4
        Radarbox view at 1120UTC, just a few flights still descending into London airports but no other traffic in the UK.

        My gallery of transport and travel pictures.

        Click Here to view my photos at RailPictures.Net!

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        • #5
          I just checked the flight plan. We are flying from FRA via France (south of the UK) then over the North Atlantic to a waypoint called "VIXUN" and then pretty much direct to ORD. A little detour Compared to the Great Circle distance we fly a detour of roughly 200NM due to the Vulcanic Ashcloud.
          Belgium issued a NOTAM as well for a forecasted Ashcloud.

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          • #6
            Is this the same volcano that erupted a couple of weeks back, or is this the "bigger one" that they were worried about back then?
            Yet another AD.com convert!

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            • #7
              Originally posted by WILCO737 View Post
              I just checked the flight plan. We are flying from FRA via France (south of the UK) then over the North Atlantic to a waypoint called "VIXUN" and then pretty much direct to ORD. A little detour Compared to the Great Circle distance we fly a detour of roughly 200NM due to the Vulcanic Ashcloud.
              Belgium issued a NOTAM as well for a forecasted Ashcloud.
              Did you depart ok?
              David Spalton

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              • #8
                I had planned to visit Heathrow at the weekend to do some spotting, i'm guessing i'm going to have to re-think this one now?

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                • #9
                  Bring your facemask and goggles and a good filter for your camera lense. That stuff is nasty when it starts blowing around.

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                  • #10
                    Well i got some shopping to do then!

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                    • #11
                      BBC did some oncamera interviews with stranded passengers. One Scottish guy with a VERY thick accent appeared to be stumpted. He said the planes fly far above the cloud, so why should flights be canceled? Apparently a few years ago a plane was totally crippled when flown into the ash of an Indonesian earthquake. The British regulators didn't want a replay of that. But if cruising altitude is well above 30k and the ash rises to 20k, how does that shut down trans-Atlantic travel? They graphed where the winds were carrying the cloud. Given that flight plans follow the earth's curvature, it would seem to me a lot of flights would pass north of Iceland, north of the ash cloud. I remember our Air France flight arrived in America above Newfoundland or Labrador and skirted the coast down to JFK. Nothin in that flight path would have put us in the way of that cloud.

                      I do see a problem landing in UK. You have to descend into the airports through the altitude where the ask is. Isn't it likely that flights from Scandinavia would only be canceled if bound for UK airports? Could stranded passengers take a train to the continent and to an airport that wasn't hampered by the cloud? I guess this is the payoff for people who didn't cheap out on trip interruption insurance.

                      And, oh for a shipline to bail out to. But as in the past, capitalism has marginalized everything that wasn't fast and cheap. Consumers pretty much did this to themselves.

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                      • #12
                        I live under some of the busiest airspace in Europe. We see arrivals and departures from Manchester, Liverpool, Hawarden, Birmingham, East Mids and Blackpool plus high level traffic including a constant stream of trans-Atlantic flights. Whenever you look up you see at least one plane. Not today, not one all day.!!


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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by EconomyClass View Post
                          BBC did some oncamera interviews with stranded passengers. One Scottish guy with a VERY thick accent appeared to be stumpted. He said the planes fly far above the cloud, so why should flights be canceled? Apparently a few years ago a plane was totally crippled when flown into the ash of an Indonesian earthquake. The British regulators didn't want a replay of that. But if cruising altitude is well above 30k and the ash rises to 20k, how does that shut down trans-Atlantic travel? They graphed where the winds were carrying the cloud. Given that flight plans follow the earth's curvature, it would seem to me a lot of flights would pass north of Iceland, north of the ash cloud. I remember our Air France flight arrived in America above Newfoundland or Labrador and skirted the coast down to JFK. Nothin in that flight path would have put us in the way of that cloud.
                          .
                          Because you would have to climb through that ash cloud at 20,000 feet to get to 30,000 feet. Also, the airliner that lost all 4 engines: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_9

                          was cruising at 36,000 feet. Just because they think most of this ash is at 20,000 feet doesn't mean that the volcanic ash cannot gain much greater altitudes (hundreds of thousands of feet depending on the eruption: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eruption_column)

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by cja View Post
                            I live under some of the busiest airspace in Europe. We see arrivals and departures from Manchester, Liverpool, Hawarden, Birmingham, East Mids and Blackpool plus high level traffic including a constant stream of trans-Atlantic flights. Whenever you look up you see at least one plane. Not today, not one all day.!!
                            They were saying nothing had ever stopped UK aviation like this.

                            Sure a lot of natural calamities this year. Apparrently something on this order in Iceland hasn't happened in a long time.

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                            • #15
                              Airports in Northern Germany are all closed (Hamburg, Bremen, Hannover Berlin,Düsseldorf), Frankfurt has reduced traffic, flights to Northern Europe, UK or the US are cancelled. Flights from Asia are still scheduled, so Thai and Singapore are on their way to FRA, also some flights from Middle East and Arabia (LH6xx). Ash cloud will be expected for around 6:00 over FRA, so probably FRA will be closed, also airports in Southern Germany.
                              I got up at 4:30 and walked the dog, I couldn't see any airplane, neither approaching FRA (RWY07 in use) over my house nor passing FRA in higher flight levels to / from AMS / CDG / LHR. It is pretty quiet this morning.


                              get FRA spotting informations here:
                              www.Frankfurt-Aviation-Friends.eu

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