UK Flights Disrupted By Iceland!

[whole diary]

[Bob_Blakey]

Not because the airlines have run out of frozen pizza, but rather the imminent arrival of a large cloud of volcanic ash which originated from the recent eruption of Eyjafjallajoekull.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8621407.stm

Judging by the Exeter Airport departure board already this morning some train services are likely to be busier than expected.

[JayMac]

Pretty much every UK^▸ (United Kingdom) airport is facing severe disruption. All but one arrival at Bristol Airport is currently showing as cancelled.

Gonna be a mad day today for airline passengers. Can see long distance rail services being rammed to the gunnels.

[Bob_Blakey]

Coincidence or a little bit of forward planning by XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise))?...the 0634 BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains)-0837 PLY^» (Plymouth - next trains) service this morning, which invariably passes south of Exeter on my way to work, was a double Voyager.

[Brucey]

Statement on Icelandic volcanic eruption: Thurs April 15, 09:30
From midday today until at least 6pm, there will be no flights permitted in UK^▸ (United Kingdom) controlled airspace other than emergency situations. This has been applied in accordance with international civil aviation policy. We continue to monitor the situation with the Met Office and work closely with airline customers and adjoining countries.

http://www.nats.co.uk/

I would hazard a guess that the railways will become quite busy today.

[Tim]

Looking on the bright side...

1) Trains and the roads will be busy I am sure but it is an opportunity for the railway to demonstrate what it can do to potential new customers. I have a colleague in Brussels at the moment who has just booked a Eurostar-FGW^▸ (First Great Western) journey to replace his flight.   

2) The folks who live under the Heathrow flightpath will sleep well tonight.

3) We might get some spectacular sunsets. 

[grahame]

... who has just booked a Eurostar-FGW^▸ (First Great Western) journey to replace his flight.    ....

Is volcanic ash less of a problem in the tunnel than the wrong sort of snow 

Seriously - any issues at ground level with ground based vehicle engines?

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

The eruption ejected the plume, which is made up of fine rock particles, up to 11km into the atmosphere.
"This ash cloud is now drifting with the high altitude winds," said Dr David Rothery, a volcano researcher from the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)'s Open University. "The main mass is over Scandinavia, but it is also over the north of Great Britain and is likely to spread south over the whole island by the end of [Thursday]."
The plume is so high that it will neither be visible nor pose a threat to the health of humans on the ground, although Dr Rothery added that we may have a "spectacularly red sunset" on Thursday evening.

[John R]

Looking on the bright side...

1) Trains and the roads will be busy I am sure but it is an opportunity for the railway to demonstrate what it can do to potential new customers. I have a colleague in Brussels at the moment who has just booked a Eurostar-FGW^▸ (First Great Western) journey to replace his flight.   

2) The folks who live under the Heathrow flightpath will sleep well tonight.

3) We might get some spectacular sunsets. 

and 4) We may get stranded in Florida by BA^» (British Airways - about) for the second year running. 

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Icelandic volcanic ash disruption prompts rush to rail

Travel firms have seen bookings surge as people seek different travel arrangements after planes were grounded in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) because of volcanic ash.
Eurostar said some of Thursday's services between the UK and mainland Europe were almost full after "thousands" of extra reservations.
And Virgin Trains said that it was carrying an extra 2,000 passengers on its route between Glasgow and London.
Ferry companies also reported an increase in enquiries.
A spokesman for Brittany Ferries said people were hastily re-arranging travel plans.
"We expect Spain routes to be particularly busy, given that it is the biggest tourist destination for Britons," he added.
Passengers also appeared to be altering travel arrangements for Friday and the weekend - anticipating further disruption.
Eurostar said mainly of its Friday trains, which were already busy due to demand for Spring breaks, were filling up.
And a spokesman for P&O ferries said passengers were "not going to risk any prolonged closure of airports" so were booking ahead.
The grounding of aircraft would cause some short term impact on productivity in the UK as some people were unable to get to work according to the Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR).
However the ability for people to work form home, and the tendency to make up lost time later meant it would probably have only a limited impact.
All flights in and out of the UK have been suspended as ash from a volcanic eruption in Iceland moves south.
Safety body Eurocontrol said up to 4,000 flights across northern Europe had so far been affected by the cloud.
The Air Traffic Control Service (Nats) said no flights would be allowed in or out of UK airspace until 1800BST amid fears of engine damage.

[Tim]

... who has just booked a Eurostar-FGW^▸ (First Great Western) journey to replace his flight.    ....

Is volcanic ash less of a problem in the tunnel than the wrong sort of snow 

Seriously - any issues at ground level with ground based vehicle engines?

I don't think so.  The ash is very dispirsed (and most of it is in the upper atmophere anyway).  I think that the problem with aircraft engines is that they suck in such vast quantities of air that the dust accumulates.  When the ash melts at 1200 C it turns into molten glass.  I suspect that only aircraft engines exceed that temperature.

The channel tunnel is full of dust anyway.

[inspector_blakey]

The World Service had an interview with Eric Moody, captain of a BA^» (British Airways - about) 747 that flew through a cloud of volcanic ash in Indonesia in 1982, temporarily shutting down all four engines (and in fact damaging them so badly that once the plane landed safely they were scrapped). Coincidentally, we ended up discussing exactly the same incident a few days ago here.

But seriously, first the Cod Wars, then the Icelandic banks collapse with lots of British money and now they've shut down our airspace... Coincidence?

[Chris from Nailsea]

Update: All flights over the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) are cancelled until 0700BST on Friday as ash from a volcanic eruption in Iceland causes chaos across Europe.

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

All 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.
Up to 4,000 flights are being cancelled with airspace closed in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark among others.
The UK's air traffic control service (Nats) said no flights would be allowed in or out of UK airspace until 0700 BST on Friday amid fears of engine damage.
The airspace restriction was the worst in living memory, a spokesman said.
Nats suggested that the restrictions were unlikely to be lifted after 0700, saying saying it was "very unlikely that the situation over England will improve in the foreseeable future".

[smithy]

for anyone who wants to read about what volcanic ash can do to turbofans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_9


ground based vehicles are unlikely to be affected due to operating different to plane engines and also not consuming such a vast amount of air.
how ironic as i write this air crash investigation on nat geo is about speedbird 9 over jakarta in 1982

[readytostart]

Coincidence or a little bit of forward planning by XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise))?...the 0634 BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains)-0837 PLY^» (Plymouth - next trains) service this morning, which invariably passes south of Exeter on my way to work, was a double Voyager.

Conspiracy theorists can calm down, double set due to 221125 failing at Long Rock, 1M49 0940 PNZ-MAN started at Par, presumably with one of the above units!

[Super Guard]

And here was me wanting to trial Air South West today.... oh well