You don’t need me to point out that right now one of the major news stories is the after-effects of the volcanic eruption on Iceland, called Eyjafjallajoekull. No I have no idea how to pronounce it. And yes I copied and pasted the name rather than learned how to spell it.
I am concerned about the loss to the economy about the on flying.
Yes, there have been incidents in the past where engines on aeroplanes have cut out when going through clouds of volcanic ash and they had to be rescued from certain disaster by excellent piloting skills. There may have been plane crashes caused by volcanic ash that I am not aware of.
So I can see why the danger exists and it would not be a good idea to fly directly through a volcanic ash cloud.
But the UK is 1000km away from the eruption, and distance from the source of the volcano will surely make the cloud less dense and therefore less dangerous? Certainly, other parts of Europe are even further away.
Add on to that, there are probably surgeons stuck 1000’s of miles away on holiday islands that need to get back to perform planned life-saving operations. There will be loved ones separated for far longer than required. There may be DJs not able to go to clubs to save clubbers lives (last night a DJ saved my life).
We need to get the planes back up in the air, except for the very most dangerous areas around the volcanic ash cloud.
I fully believe that the reason that aeroplanes are not flying is because whomever is responsible for making the decision of ‘yes it is safe’ knows that if disaster or near-disaster struck, they would be hounded by the media and be forced to live with the consequences of their decision, however slight the chance of such a disaster may be. So they have to go for the cautious approach, even though it is likely in my opinion to be more indirectly damaging to people’s lives than the “risky” approach.
As a friend of mine would say, the guy making the decision needs to grow some balls and “man up”.
Get the planes in the air.
This is a ridiculously huge, costly and probably indirectly-deadly over-reaction and we must get flying again.