Volcanic Ash Causing European Travel Problems

Could definitely smell something burning in Bergen today. My father was supposed to be home by today, but can't make it due to the ash.
 
Denmark is closed, not good for my aunts vacation in Firence Saturday.

I wonder if this will last months or years, airports depending on ash forecasts, and a lot of industries having to adapt to less speedy/reliable delivery.


At least it might mean a upturn in shipping employment. :D
 
MRC_Hans said:
Sorry, but I can't seem to think of anything essential that we can't do without for a few days, or even weeks. Mainly because those essential things are normally safety stocked, to allow for just such situations (although things like strikes are more likely scenarios, but with similar effects).

Green beans, indeed! :rolleyes:

On the bright side, we will at least defer some massive CO2 emissions ....

Hans
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In large parts of Norway, emergency services are by air only. I have family living roughly 2.5 hours away from the nearest hospital. They depend on air-travel for ambulance services.

Anyways, somebody on bad astronomy shared this: http://www.radar-virtuel.com/ , an overview over planes in the air.
 
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Like I said elsewhere- google "Lakigigar" . 8 months of eruptions, sulphide and fluorine poisoning, temperature drop and lousy weather, crop failures, livestock death and human starvation, all good stuff. 1783-4 I think. The craters are still rather impressive.

Rolfe- if you can see it in the air you would have a potentially serious lung hazard.
Watch the paintwork on that shiny new car of yours. Rinse BEFORE you polish.
The problem is not so much the size of the ash cloud as the fact the weather's not dispersing it. I think the flight bans are needlessly extensive for that reason. This could have been flown around, at least yesterday.

I'm interested that while I see much about ash I'm not seeing much about chemistry.
There are reports of "Rotten egg" smell from Shetland and Norway- possibly H2S, even very low concentrations of which are not remotely funny.
Main danger from subglacial eruptions is to the neighbours. Jokullhaup-Glacier burst- the water & ice overlying the volcano forms a pressure cap until it melts, then starts to boil- water either runs away, melting more ice, or flashes to steam. Hydrostatic head falls and the trapped gas expands upwards, accelerating the loss of overlying pressure. You now have a supergeyser of sulphuric acid. Not good.
 
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MRC_Hans said:
Apart from red sunsets, it will not be noticeable on the ground, and it will not affect any people besides air travellers .....
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Darat said:
Apart from those in the industry, those whose business relies on air freight, people expecting documents from abroad, people meeting, contracts being signed the list goes on and on ...
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like people whose mother-in-law is stuck at their home for they don't know how long ...
 
PogoPedant said:
In large parts of Norway, emergency services are by air only. I have family living roughly 2.5 hours away from the nearest hospital. They depend on air-travel for ambulance services.

Anyways, somebody on bad astronomy shared this: http://www.radar-virtuel.com/ , an overview over planes in the air.
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It's apparently the high level flying that is really at risk - so I assume the likes of low flying aircraft and helicopters will still be able to fly if neccessary.
 
Just heard on uk news. Airspace may be closed until 1am tomorow.
Heard on news last night-Man at Glasgow airport: "I don't know why the planes can't take off? It's not like the ash is at ground level is it?" he was very annoyed..doh!
 
MRC_Hans said:
Sorry, but I can't seem to think of anything essential that we can't do without for a few days, or even weeks. Mainly because those essential things are normally safety stocked, to allow for just such situations (although things like strikes are more likely scenarios, but with similar effects).

Green beans, indeed! :rolleyes:

On the bright side, we will at least defer some massive CO2 emissions ....

Hans
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A whole lot of airfreight is articles that some manager THOUGHT were safety stocked and could wait for the next container load... yet mysteriously disappeared (as in "used up but someone forgot to adjust the inventory"). I know of production lines that will shut down if they don't get their airfreight within about a two day window. Some industries, notoriously the hitech and automotive and pharma sectors, actually deal in daily production line deliveries on a JIT basis, and that's quite often airfreight, also.
 
learner said:
Afurther update from radio Iceland (or something) The last time they had a Volcano behave as badly as this was 1821. It lasted two years. It didnt stop flights then but there is concern that holidaying UKers will be speaking all foreign by the time they get home.
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Well, obviously us modern types could learn a thing or two from history if we'd have paid attention. What did they do back in 1821 to assure that the air transportation wasn't disrupted? We just have to duplicate that effort and all will be fine. Duuuh! Do I have to do all the thinking around here? :rolleyes:
 
Foolmewunz said:
Well, obviously us modern types could learn a thing or two from history if we'd have paid attention. What did they do back in 1821 to assure that the air transportation wasn't disrupted? We just have to duplicate that effort and all will be fine. Duuuh! Do I have to do all the thinking around here? :rolleyes:
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I believe it was a no flight policy that was followed world wide. For both years concerned.
 
Foolmewunz said:
See? That'd do it. Would you like to be the EU's new Minister of Transportation? I like the way you think.
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I'd love to but I doubt I would be up to the challenge. I just cut my Nose with a knife as I was trying to kill a fly in mid-flight. It would make George Bush look like an inspired appointment. :o
 
Soapy Sam said:
Like I said elsewhere- google "Lakigigar" . 8 months of eruptions, sulphide and fluorine poisoning, temperature drop and lousy weather, crop failures, livestock death and human starvation, all good stuff. 1783-4 I think. The craters are still rather impressive.
Click to expand...


That's interesting. I was looking at 1816. They were saying on the radio that this wasn't going to cause another "year without a summer", but I see the parallels with 1787 are closer.

Soapy Sam said:
Rolfe- if you can see it in the air you would have a potentially serious lung hazard.
Watch the paintwork on that shiny new car of yours. Rinse BEFORE you polish.
The problem is not so much the size of the ash cloud as the fact the weather's not dispersing it. I think the flight bans are needlessly extensive for that reason. This could have been flown around, at least yesterday.
Click to expand...


Still can't see anything. Wall-to-wall sunshine here this morning.

The guys on the GTi forum are running around clearing their garages to get their cars in, but you can't do anything about daytime parking at work, at least I can't. And my garage tap is still hors de combat with a leak, following the big freeze-up at Christmas.

They got a flight off to Toronto this morning, and they're talking about running local flights within Scotland at low altitudes. I suspect they'll figure out that low-level air ambulance flights will have to happen, although I gather they weren't flying yesterday.

Soapy Sam said:
I'm interested that while I see much about ash I'm not seeing much about chemistry.
There are reports of "Rotten egg" smell from Shetland and Norway- possibly H2S, even very low concentrations of which are not remotely funny.
Main danger from subglacial eruptions is to the neighbours. Jokullhaup-Glacier burst- the water & ice overlying the volcano forms a pressure cap until it melts, then starts to boil- water either runs away, melting more ice, or flashes to steam. Hydrostatic head falls and the trapped gas expands upwards, accelerating the loss of overlying pressure. You now have a supergeyser of sulphuric acid. Not good.
Click to expand...


Not good at all. As if Iceland didn't have its troubles already. And while I'm sure we can all cope with a couple of days no-fly, some things are certainly going to get awkward if it turns into weeks.

Rolfe.
 
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