European airspace closed by volcanic ash

Tens of thousands of air travellers were stranded today when all flights into and out of the United Kingdom were grounded today as volcanic ash from the Eyjafjallaj?kull eruption was drawn into the jetstream. The grounding is even more extensive than that followed the September 11, attacks of 2001 when only trans-Atlantic flights were cancelled.

The grounding is due to the fact that the volcanic ash is of a particle size which allows it to remain aloft in the atmosphere, and a composition that would melt if it were to enter the engine of an aircraft. This foreign matter ingestion because of its distribution would lead to flameouts of all an aircraft engines, and could lead to damage the compressors and fan blades which would make it impossible to restart the engines even if the aircraft was to exit the cloud.

The current contingency is informed by the experience of British Airways Flight 9 on June 24, 1982 suffered just such complete engine flameouts, when it flew through the plume of Mount Galunggung in Indonesia. In that case the flightcrew were able to restart the engines, though one failed shortly after, and the aircraft was able to land without casualties.

The National Air Traffic Services (NATS) has stated that “restrictions will remain in place in UK controlled airspace until 1300 (UK time) tomorrow, Friday 16 April, at the earliest.” and that “We will review further Met Office information and at 0230 (UK time) tomorrow we will advise the arrangements that will be in place through to 1800 (UK time) tomorrow.”

The NATS statement concluded that “…the situation cannot be said to be improving”, and it is believed that the ash will go on to affect Scandanavia and Northern Europe.

Source : Wikinews