Author Topic: UK airspace closed 15th April because of Iceland volcanic dust plume  (Read 207 times)

Offline Simba

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Hmmmm, woke up early this morning, switched on the news channel and heard that UK airspace is being progressively closed from the north due to a plume of volcanic dust drifting south from Iceland's latest volcanic eruption. All Scottish airspace was declared closed to air traffic at 0500 GMT. Latest info here in Blighty at 0700 GMT is that all flights in and out of all UK airports will be stopped until the situation's reviewed at noon. Inbound flights from the USA are off. RAF, RN and emergency flights will still operate.

Hope our friend Angus is OK. I wondered why he'd been casting covetous glances at my Hurricane IID with the Vokes air filter . . .

 :cool:

« Last Edit: April 15, 2010, 02:31:26 AM by Simba »
Simba
No.6 Squadron vRFC/RAF

Offline Angus

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Re: UK airspace closed 15th April because of Iceland volcanic dust plume
« Reply #1 on: April 15, 2010, 03:35:29 AM »
New info gets posted on another thread, - and I am fine, thank you ;)
Apart from the ashes being a proper "stopper" of jet engines, they are also poisoned. There are some isotopes with lots of Fluor in it, and this will poison both surface water and pasture, although only for a short time.
I do not know how far those travel, - if they are bound only to the heavier ash, or if they also fly with the finer ones, but I seriously hope that your agriculture does not get a dose of that filth.
There is but one remedy for lifestock in the open, - fence it off or close it in where there can be no access to pasture and surface water, and wait it off. For us, in the winter-time, this is but a minor nuicanse. In the summer, it is really bad. For the UK, it would be very bad, since much of for instance sheep and beef cattle rely much more on pasture and less winter-feed than our stock, - we have a longer winter to deal with, see.
Crossing my fingers for you Brits. And Norwegians.
The weather forecast is not in your favour, winds coming from the North and the North-west in the next days. It is a rather rare direction of wind though, so I always am a bit sceptic of long spells of NW wind. A pure N-wind would blow the ashes to the sea, which is the best, but could stop trans-atlantic flights instead. Or cause a re-route, where you would have to fly over Iceland on the way USA-EUROPE....
It was very interesting to carry out the flight trials at Rechlin with the Spitfire and the Hurricane. Both types are very simple to fly compared to our aircraft, and childishly easy to take-off and land. (Werner Mölders)

Offline Simba

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Re: UK airspace closed 15th April because of Iceland volcanic dust plume
« Reply #2 on: April 15, 2010, 05:11:25 AM »
Latest news announced on the BBC at 1100 hrs BST - ALL flights in and out of the UK will be suspended at noon (1100 hrs GMT).

Ho hum, guess the travellers will have to hit the bars instead.   :cheers:

 :cool:

Simba
No.6 Squadron vRFC/RAF

Offline TOMCAT21

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Re: UK airspace closed 15th April because of Iceland volcanic dust plume
« Reply #3 on: April 15, 2010, 08:34:48 AM »
stay safe Angus
RETIRED US Army/ Flying and dying since Tour 80/"We're paratroopers, Lieutenant, we're supposed to be surrounded." - Capt. Richard Winters.  FSO 412th FNVG/MA- REGULATORS