Damn You Iceland!

[Andz]

On April 14 last year I left London bound for Johannesburg blissfully unaware of the impending chaos I was leaving behind... it turns out I was on the last flight out of Heathrow to Johannesburg for almost 2 weeks due to the volcanic ash cloud.

Now, exactly 2 weeks before I am due to leave for the UK to watch MotoGP at Silverstone, another damned Icelandic hill is spewing crap into the atmosphere and threatening air travel once again.

Of course no one can predict the outcome of this... even if it only causes hiccups in the flight schedules for a week the knock-on effect of cancelled flights will last much longer.

I already organised and paid for my wife's visa, now it is wait and see for the flights, race tickets, car hire....

 

[Kazza]

Fingers crossed for you Andz!

 

[Jugro]

Apparently Ryanair is giving it the finger and flying through it.. Maintenance is apparently cheap.

Hope it blows over before you have too go.

 

[The Dude]

Didn't they conclude it was safe to fly through that stuff last year? It's probably just an excuse to create a backlog of demand and drive up prices.

 

[Andz]

Apparently Ryanair is giving it the finger and flying through it

I heard that too but apparently not....

If you read this thread:

Iceland Airspace Closed Due To Ash Cloud — Civil Aviation Forum | Airliners.net

Reply 71:
From Ryanair.com:
Ryanair confirms that it operated a one hour verification flight up to 41,000 feet in Scottish airspace this morning (24th May). The aircraft took off from Glasgow Prestwick, flew to Inverness, on to Aberdeen and down to Edinburgh - all of which according to CAA charts were in the “red zone” of “high ash concentration”.

There was no visible volcanic ash cloud or any other presence of volcanic ash and the post flight inspection revealed no evidence of volcanic ash on the airframe, wings or engines. The absence of any volcanic ash in the atmosphere supports Ryanair’s stated view that there is no safety threat to aircraft in this mythical “red zone” which is another misguided invention by the UK Met Office and the CAA.

Ryanair has also received written confirmation from both its airframe and engine manufacturers that it is safe to operate in these so called “red zones” and, in any event, Ryanair’s verification flight this morning also confirms that the “red zone” over Scotland is non-existent.

Reply 82:
"The CAA can confirm that at no time did a Ryanair flight enter the notified area of high contamination ash over Scotland this morning."

 

[Cloggy]

I really hope that it doesn't effect you in any way Andz.

My Mum was stranded here (NL) last time this happened but it's a bit easier to catch a boat between the Netherlands and the UK than from SA :BLAA:.

Looking forward to your write up (and pics) from Silverstone :thumbup:

 

[Humperdinkel]

Hopefully it all blows over for you Andrew :thumbup: Mother Nature can be a nasty biatch sometimes

 

[Tailgate]

I'm scheduled to come in to London next month. Great news. Why don't they move the volcano to some other place?

 

[racing_fan]

I know how u feel Andz.... I am due to fly from heathrow on friday to Saudi for an Umrah trip worth £2000. Stress levels are intolerable....


Also, is it just me or is Iceland causing a lot of waves in the world recently? The ash last year, one of the worst cases of banks tanking, wikileaks and now ash again?

 

[goanookie]

Looks like most of the European airspace is open again, lucky for the OP and lucky for me because I'm travelling to Denmark today.