Ash Cloud Ban

60 aircraft flying around have something to do with a vulcano erupting someplace else? Why ?

Hmmmm, i don't get it either. Better than suggesting they staged the volcano though. That would be true Dr Evil territory.

As for

The sense that you refer to seems to be what you are criticizing, assuming you are. The air space has been opened because the modeling and ground and air sensing has suggested a few safe air passages. It has been opened because of a rational decision still based within the confines of all of the same rules that had them close it.

No-one has 'seen sense' in the manner the phrase is used culturally, as 'at last they have realised their previous stupidity and changed their minds'. They have not done. It may as well have just been written 'at last the particulate level in some corridors has decreased enough to allow air travel for limited periods of time and until the situation changes again', which is what has happened.

Could anyone here honestly say that they would put the planes back in the air without the evidence that none will crash. The airlines have flown a few test flights, but density is the key here. Fly 20 flights a day and there is probably a very low risk of incidents, but fly 20,000 like are being grounded in the UK at the moment, and you will have effectively created the perfect system to go and find those dangers.

What we need to know is whether there is a safe limit. 10, 50, 500 ppm. At the moment the engine manufacturers say zero, but perhaps they can test for more. There are difficulties though. What composition would you use for the ash? What grain size, composition, hardness? How will you model gasses?

The media has made much of the idea that scientists are using computer models (they are behaving as if this was a surprise in the modern world) and so it is not going to be accurate. I guess radar covers the UK so there is one input to the model that has a wide coverage (+satellite), but other than that, and I do not know how effective radar is especially if we are asking scientists to work out whether 10 or 50ppm is a safe limit, what inputs to the model can we use that have high resolution/area. Basically I think that all we can use is a model with as much accuracy as can be had by the limited inputs provided to it (as ever).

If you had to make the decision knowing that the model you had was not 100% accurate and never would be due to unavoidable limitations and not knowing whether there was a safe limit. How would you proceed?

We are all entitled to our opinions in free society. I have mine and you have yours.

Note: the jet plane which would normally have been sent up to get data of the ash cloud was out of action having a paintjob! Very convenient.

The people who had to make decisions as to whether to ground planes or not have no backbground or understanding of air traffic and airports (so they are said to have admitted in the newspaper I read today). If this is true, then it would make them very easy to manipulate politically.

Also the rules they followed with regard to banning flights are ones that most countries throughout the world ignore or use only as guidelines.

With so many people in jobs with no understanding, or interest in finding out information, about a subject, then it is no wonder the decisions made are so erroneous, and the people manipulated for other organisation's gain.

Someone, somewhere, has been determined to destroy the reputation and abilities of the UK, and over the past few decades and have succeeded. We are now a laughing stock. The European airlines won't be using British data in future. Too risky.

This recent event is but one step on the way to this goal.

By the way, the plane that the met office sent up was a prop plane, and it could only fly at a height below the ash cloud. Not a lot of help that.

As for creating the ash cloud. There are said to be black projects which can create earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Whilst I can't say this was done in this case, I do think that the authorities at least made the most of the cloud that did arise to caust havoc and destroy what little respect people have for the UK, which is very low at present.

Away from the topic of US Military exercises for a moment, may I add a comment on my direct experience of corporate reaction in the face of the ash cloud crisis?

Myself and my 12 year old son were left without a flight from Singapore (on our way home from Auckland, New Zealand) on the 15th April. I have since heard horror stories of various airlines refusing to provide even minimal support for their passengers - Emirates were reported to be particularly uncaring.

All I can say is that Singapore Airlines went way beyond the call and looked after us at their own expense, providing food and accommodation and especially patience in swapping flight bookings in order to get us home as soon as possible. My faith in global corporations may not have been restored (especially watching how the big chain hotels jumped at the chance of multiplying the room rates for stranded travellers) but I would have no hesitation in recommending Singapore Airlines.

We finally arrived home a week later that we should have been here but I feel so sorry for those who may be stranded for several weeks to come facing spiralling credit card bills when they eventually do make it home.

Dave.