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Icelandic volcanic ash alert grounds UK & European flights

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Source: http://news.bbc.co.u.../uk/8621407.stm

 

Icelandic volcanic ash alert grounds UK flights

 

Airline passengers are facing massive disruption across the UK after an ash cloud from a volcanic eruption in Iceland grounded planes.

 

The Air Traffic Control Service (Nats) said no flights would be allowed in or out of UK airspace from midday to 1800BST amid fears of engine damage.

 

Airports operator BAA confirmed all flights at Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick would be suspended from midday.

 

And in Scotland, authorities have already shut all their airports.

 

The restrictions, in accordance with international civil aviation policy, were imposed after the Met Office warned ash could clog engines.

 

Passengers were advised to contact their carriers prior to travel.

 

Experts have warned that the tiny particles of rock, glass and sand contained in the ash cloud would be sufficient to jam aircraft engines.

 

Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow airports were shut as Nats said it was restricting flights "in accordance with international civil aviation policy".

 

One passenger at Glasgow told the BBC: "I'm meant to be going to Lanzarote. We've travelled from Oban, leaving at 3am. Now we've decided we might as well just go home and do a bit of gardening."

 

The ash cloud disrupted all flights to and from Manchester with a similar picture at Newcastle airport where all arrivals were cancelled and all outbound flights either cancelled or subject to indefinite delay.

 

Liverpool's John Lennon airport suspended all flights until at least 1300BST.

 

British Airways said it had cancelled all domestic flights for the whole of Thursday, which affected flights at London's Gatwick, Heathrow and City airports.

 

The company said it would refund its passengers or offer the option of rebooking.

 

Budget airline Ryanair said no flights were operating to or from the UK on Thursday and it expected cancellations and delays on Friday.

 

Engines shut

 

Birmingham airport warned of severe disruption with about 90% of flights cancelled, and there were problems reported at East Midlands, Leeds Bradford, Cardiff International and Bristol.

 

Most flights were suspended at Belfast International Airport and George Best Belfast City Airport, with some in and out of Dublin airport also hit.

 

Nats spokesman said: "The Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre has issued a forecast that the ash cloud from the volcanic eruption in Iceland will track over Europe tonight.

 

"Nats is working with Eurocontrol and our colleagues in Europe's other air navigation service providers to take the appropriate action to ensure safety in accordance with international aviation policy."

 

The European air safety body, Eurocontrol, said the cloud of ash had reached 55,000ft and was expected to move through northern UK and Scotland by 1300BST.

 

Brian Flynn, assistant head of operations of its central flow management unit, told the BBC: "As it moves toward the Netherlands and Belgium it will dissipate and lose intensity, like any weather phenomenon. But we don't know what the extent of it will be."

 

Further south, five easyJet flights due to depart from Stansted airport in Essex were cancelled, along with all northbound flights from Southampton and Newquay airports.

 

Bournemouth airport grounded a flight to Dublin but said all other departures were on schedule.

 

Met Office forecaster Philip Avery said the ash could take several days to clear.

He said: "It is showing up on imagery at the moment, extending down as far as the Faroes but it looks as though the wind will drag it a good deal further south.

 

"Nats has good cause to be very cautious about this because in about 1982 a British Airways jumbo had the unnerving experience of having all four engines shut down as it flew through a plume of volcanic ash."

 

There was a nearly identical incident on 15 December 1989 when KLM Flight 867, a B747-400 from Amsterdam to Anchorage, Alaska, flew into the plume of the erupting Mount Redoubt, causing all four engines to fail.

 

Once the flight cleared the ash cloud, the crew was able to restart each engine and then make a safe landing at Anchorage, but the aircraft was substantially damaged.

 

A BAA spokesman said: "Passengers intending to fly today are asked to contact their airline for further information."

 

Fears over the ash forced the Great North Air Ambulance - covering parts of North Yorkshire - to be grounded, but the Royal Air Force said it would maintain its search and rescue operations.

 

An RAF spokesman said: "We will continue to provide full search and rescue cover, however we will consider all requests we get on a case by case basis.

 

"The ash is mainly affecting the air traffic control radar but we can fly in cloud and reduced visibility.

 

The eruption under a glacier in the Eyjafjallajoekull area of Iceland is the second in the country in less than a month.

 

A Nats spokesperson said the volcano was still erupting.

 

 

Opps! I will be on SQ321 tomorrow sad.gif

Edited by H C Chai

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This is a snapshot from flightradar24.com...I don't think this has ever been seen before...absolutely nothing flying over the UK

 

EuropeAirMap15thApril.jpg

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Below from MH and EK

 

 

A statement from MAS said the following flights were disrupted:

 

- Kuala Lumpur–London (MH4), which departed Kuala Lumpur 10.00am Thursday will not be landing in London but will be diverted to Frankfurt with estimated arrival at 2.15pm local time.

 

- Kuala Lumpur–London flight (MH2) and Kuala Lumpur–Amsterdam (MH16) departing at 11.45pm and 11.55pm respectively Thursday have been delayed until further notice.

 

- London–Kuala Lumpur flight (MH3) has already departed London and is expected to arrive in Kuala Lumpur on schedule.

 

- Amsterdam–Kuala Lumpur flight (MH17) already departed and is also expected to arrive in Kuala Lumpur on schedule

 

- Kuala Lumpur-Frankfurt (MH006) will be departing on schedule at 11.50pm Thurday.

 

Affected connecting passengers in Kuala Lumpur on tonight's flights to London and Amsterdam will be given a one-night accommodation.

 

 

 

 

The following Emirates services to UK today (15April) are cancelled due to airspace closure affected by volcanic ash clouds movement across UK and Northern Europe: London Heathrow EK29/30, EK003/004, EK005/006, Manchester EK17/18 and EK19/20, Newcastle EK35/36, Gatwick EK009/010, Birmingham EK39/40 & EK37/38 and Glasgow EK27/28.

Edited by Alan B.

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Basically, the whole of Western-Europe has been closed off now...

 

NL Airspace was closed as from 1600z/15apr...very strange to go home and hear no single airplane take-off or land or even see overflights at that time !!! :blink:

 

What I understood is, Ireland, UK, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Benelux, France and Germany are all closed now !!!

 

Western Russia might follow tomorrow...

 

As it stands now, NL Airspace will not open tomorrow and might even be closed on saturday, depending the airflow of the volcano-ash... :blink:

 

(Check some links on my signature to see the nature of this phenomena)

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A bit of history... :)

 

When volcanic ash stopped a Jumbo at 37,000ft

 

A plume of volcanic ash from Iceland has led to flights across the UK being grounded. The events around one British Airways flight in 1982 reveal the potential dangers of this sort of dust.

 

When volcanic ash stopped a Jumbo at 37,000ft

 

BA 009 (a Boeing 747) flew from KUL (Subang) to PER that day...

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And this Iceland eruption is not a real biggie yet. The current volcano has been dormant for 200yrs, and the fear is the ongoing eruption can cause a much bigger volcano nearby to erupt. That'd be catastrophic not only for EU but for the whole world. Melting of huge icecaps, release of toxic gases into the jetstream ... hmmm ...hey, ain't 2012 just around the corner?

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You're not going anywhere then I guess wink.gif

 

Iceland volcano: UK flights grounded for second day

 

Yes, I am not going anywhere. SQ flights have been cancelled, or delayed indefinitely as they called them.

 

Received a text alert asking me to phone the SQ call centre to have my flight rebooked. Tried about 5 times calling them, was put on hold for 20 minutes+ on each ocassion and still couldn't get through to a representative!

 

Oh well, at least the weather is going to be nice this weekend.

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When is the airspace likely to reopen? I need to fly back to MAN by 19th...

 

Well... good Luck!

Currently the situation still gets worse. Frankfurt is closed since early morning (so currently ALL western european intercont hubs are closed: Paris, London, Frankfurt, Muc expects to be closed later today). The Austrian airspace will be closed by early evening today.

 

I should be going to London tomorrow morning...good joke, isn't it?

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Do you think propeller planes would be affected by the microscopic particles in the air?

 

As long as they have air-breathing engines, they are affected.

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As of right now, only FCO (Rome) is not affected in MH's network. MH Deals Facebook page is updated with the latest delay/cancellation info for MH flights.

 

MH Deals by Malaysia Airlines

[JUST IN] Flight to London, Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt likely to be delayed 48 hours

17 minutes ago · Comment · Like

 

MH Deals by Malaysia Airlines

Due to airport closures across the UK and Europe as a result of volcanic ash from Iceland, Malaysia Airlines’ flights to London, Amsterdam & Paris have been disrupted.

6 hours ago · Comment · Like

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As long as they have air-breathing engines, they are affected.

Loved your metaphor, captain. :lol:

 

The ash cover is widespread. Seems like another Pinatubo.

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(1) Received a text alert asking me to phone the SQ call centre to have my flight rebooked. Tried about 5 times calling them, was put on hold for 20 minutes+ on each ocassion and still couldn't get through to a representative!

 

(2) Oh well, at least the weather is going to be nice this weekend.

(1) Oh dear ! Even the mighty SQ cannot cope apparently :(

(2) Bear in mind it is British weather you're referring to and the is still (by my estimation) some 12 hours before "this weekend" strikes :D

 

 

Heathrow skies silenced by Iceland volcanic ash cloud

by Dhruti Shah

BBC News, Hatton Cross

 

The scream of plane engines is a familiar sound to people living under the Heathrow flight path but all is temporarily quiet near the west London airport.

 

This is because flights in and out of the UK and several other European countries have been suspended as ash from a volcanic eruption in Iceland moves south.

 

The air traffic control service (Nats) has stopped flights entering and leaving UK airspace until 0700 BST on Friday.

 

'Birds singing'

 

Planespotter Ken Davies was standing on a grassy knoll near the airport as he watched one of the final planes out of Heathrow take off at around 1215BST.

 

With binoculars in hand, he explained how he tended to come to the same spot every few weeks.

 

He said: "There is very little activity going on. Nothing is moving. I had originally heard the planes were going to stop an hour earlier but the last one took off just a few minutes ago. We normally see one every minute but now it's just quiet.

 

"I saw a police helicopter a while ago but other than that, not much at all."

 

He said he had lived in the area for two years and had got used to the noise of the planes but the forced shutdown meant it was now possible to hear birdsong.

 

For airport worker Adesh Farmahan, the unexpected peace and quiet meant he would not have to keep his windows shut.

 

He has lived with his family in Myrtle Avenue for 24 years and much like retired Mr Davies, said he was more-or-less immune to the daily noise Heathrow produced.

 

He said: "It is very quiet though now - normally there is a lot of hubble especially when certain larger planes come. It was worse when we had Concorde planes - they were so loud and our windows and walls used to shake.

 

"But we now have triple glazing and we got used to it.".

 

"In the summer, we find it more of a problem because we have to open our windows but today I am going to go out and about in the sunshine."

 

But for a group huddled in the nearby offices of a coach company in Hatton Road, the silence came as a bit of a shock.

 

Secretary Barbara Dilello said: "I had heard a little bit about it this morning but I didn't realise all of the planes had been stopped.

 

"Normally we're OK but when we're on the phone, sometimes the customers say they can hear the planes as they're so loud. We've been forced to wear earplugs in the past," she said.

 

One of her colleagues, mechanic Darren Wetherall, said he was looking forward to a bit of "peace and quiet" while working on the coaches outside.

 

For Mina Ghasemi, a mother-of-two from Victoria who visits a friend in the Heathrow area every Thursday, the absence of the plane noise was also a welcome relief.

 

Sitting near the bike racks at Hatton Cross station, she said the west London airport was normally too "busy and crowded with too much going on".

 

"I heard about the ash stopping the planes while I was on the Underground and I wasn't sure what would be happening.

 

"But I will suggest to my friend that we spend some time outside today because it is nicer."

 

Not far away on the East Perimeter Road, Dutch travellers Niels Teusink, Wouter van der Veer and Maarten Mensink sat outside a hotel - having booked in for the night after finding out their long-awaited trip to New York would be ending in London because of the cancellations.

 

Mr Teusink said: "We found out we were on the last flight to get out of Amsterdam and although the boarding gate staff told us not to worry about anything, as we were landing the pilot told us we would not be able to continue."

 

Mr van der Veer said there were queues everywhere at Heathrow but the three men were given vouchers by British Airways to pay for a hotel stay and meals.

 

As they sat outside in the sun, Mr Mensink said it was surreal being so close to a busy airport but with "no planes flying overhead at all".

 

He said: "There are no ashes, no airplanes, no nothing".

 

from the BBC

 

So, all those environment activists opposing LHR expansion finally getting a piece of heaven ?

Unless they're due to fly out from the place I think :p

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Guest Levent

I was at work yesterday trying to deal with all the cancellations and diversions this friendly volcano has been causing. We had one flight from Moscow to New York that needed to take a route more to the south, making a fuel stop in France instead of going non-stop. I will be working night shifts over the coming three days. Something tells me that they are going to be very quiet... until the restrictions are lifted again, and then everyone will want to scramble and get to their destinations.

 

Weird really. When I started work in the morning, the whole severity of the situation hadn't really dawned upon me yet. But it really is something big, and no one knows when the volcano will stop belching out this stuff.

 

As the ash cloud is moving southwards now as well, I am looking forward to seeing some stunning sunsets though.

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A bit of history... :)

 

When volcanic ash stopped a Jumbo at 37,000ft

 

A plume of volcanic ash from Iceland has led to flights across the UK being grounded. The events around one British Airways flight in 1982 reveal the potential dangers of this sort of dust.

 

When volcanic ash stopped a Jumbo at 37,000ft

 

BA 009 (a Boeing 747) flew from KUL (Subang) to PER that day...

This is the clip of the remake of that very flight from National Geographic's Air Crash Investigation.

 

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(1) Oh dear ! Even the mighty SQ cannot cope apparently sad.gif

(2) Bear in mind it is British weather you're referring to and the is still (by my estimation) some 12 hours before "this weekend" strikes biggrin.gif

 

 

(1) On my last attempt, I was put on hold for 60 minutes. I finally gave up and sent them a feedback form via their website. This is becoming a joke. I can understand that BA is overstretched because all their network are affected, but for SQ, come on...

 

(2) Touchwood! As far as the forecast goes, its going to be sunny with a high of 17C. smile.gif

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Can't you just do it through other SQ offices worldwide? I was once in a dire need to change a booking, had to make calls to SQ offices in Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia and the UAE. The UAE office in Dubai finally managed to get it done for me. I think it is the same, as they are all referring to the same booking system no matter where their locations are, not necessarily you have to call their UK office.

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I was booked on MH3 today but have rebooked on Saturdays MH1, but even that is looking unlikely to happen.

 

The MH website flight status page was still reporting todays LHR flights as on time this afternoon. 5 star airline?

 

Geoff

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volcano-666_1026072a.jpg

 

VOLCANIC ash can cripple jet engines - and is too dry to show up on aircraft weather radar.

 

Often, the first indication a pilot has of the fine dust is the appearance of St Elmo's Fire - a harmless electrical phenomenon that creates a ball of light around the wingtips - caused by charged particles striking the plane.

 

The abrasive ash scours engine parts, includes fan blades, and covers the interior with a caking of hot glass that ultimately stops the machinery.

 

Pilot recalls mid-air hell

A PILOT whose horror experience at the helm of an ash-stricken jumbo led to rules against flying in the conditions recalled the drama yesterday.

 

Captain Eric Moody, now 68, said: "It was very frightening. All the engines stopped for 14 to 15 minutes. It was dark and we didn't know we'd hit a volcanic ash cloud."

 

The then-BA pilot was flying a 747 from Kuala Lumpur to Perth, Oz, in 1982, when he hit the ash off Java. He later said trying to fly in the cloud was "like negotiating one's way up a badger's arse".

 

But he managed to glide to a safe landing in Indonesia. The scare led to new research and the establishment of Volcanic Ash Advisory Centres to issue alerts for planes.

 

 

air3_1026250a.jpg

 

SNN1611Z-380_1025725a.jpg

 

air1_1026248a.jpg

 

bar6_1026097a.jpg

 

bar4_1026095a.jpg

 

bar1_1026092a.jpg

Edited by Denny Yen

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Here in Luxembourg, the airport is closed to all until the earliest Saturday morning (officially) but most likely the restriction will be extended as in most other countries. My boss is stuck in Birmingham since yesterday not being able to return here on the planned AF BHX-CDG-LUX, the last time I heard he was trying to get back via the good 'ol Dover-Calais ferry.

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Can't you just do it through other SQ offices worldwide? I was once in a dire need to change a booking, had to make calls to SQ offices in Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia and the UAE. The UAE office in Dubai finally managed to get it done for me. I think it is the same, as they are all referring to the same booking system no matter where their locations are, not necessarily you have to call their UK office.

 

Thanks for reminding me! How could I have forgotten that! Phoned up the Singapore call centre, was put on hold for almost 20 minutes but managed to get my flights re-booked to Monday 19th and waitlist on Sunday 18th. Now I just need to sit back, relax and keep my fingers crossed.

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Some shots from an almost abandonned AMS/EHAM

 

http://www.scramble.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=62356

 

And here a map of Europe they expect it to be at 17 April 1300 zulu: The green lines show the countries

 

http://met.no/filestore/snap_20100417_13utc.png

 

And more vulcanic activity to come next...

I fly in 2 weeks ... hopefully more then enough time for the air to get clean..

Pieter even has less time b4 his next flight.. Goodluck!

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Guest Levent

This may be a big shock to Whitney Houston fans, but it turns out she is just as mortal as the rest of us:

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8626505.stm

 

(just above the flightradar24.com images)

 

"Even US pop star Whitney Houston was forced to take a car ferry from Britain to Ireland for a concert after her flight was cancelled."

 

I don't know what's more shocking: this terrifying fact about Whitney or the fact that the BBC would write such a piece of crap in an otherwise interesting article?

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