Iceland volcano was never dangerous to air travel says stunning new report

Posted on Sunday, April 25, 2010 at 08:33 AM

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Was the dangerous ash cloud that grounded all European flights and caused billions in losses and stranded passengers everywhere all a big load of nonsense?

Yes, says the Daily Mail newspaper in an extraordinary investigation that says European authorities, including Irish completely over reacted.

Among their findings were :

The main agency making the calls, the London Volcanic Ash Center, did not have any on-site observations as the only plane equipped had been stripped down and grounded.

Instead they depended on their British Met computer models, which last year showed a very warm summer and mild winter, both way off.

The models predicted heavy ash from Russian to Newfoundland, but on most of that area there was no ash at all.

When they finally got around to measuring the density of the ash using a second plane they found out it was only at the level of 1/20th the accepted dangerous dose.

"We never understood why a blanket ban was imposed" said one major airline executive."It was overcaution gone mad"

The level of ash was revealed to be 100 micrograms as against 2000 micrograms which is the maximum planes can fly at.

A reputable U.S. firm which monitored the ash felt it was perfectly okay to fly by avoiding the worst of it as most US airlines do as a matter of course when eruptions are reported.

The 747 incident which everyone was reporting in 1982 happened when a plane flew right into an erupting volcano and parts of rocks as well as ash clogged the engines. There was no possibility of such a repeat.

So was it all nonsense? Could well have been it seems.

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goodstuf | Apr 26, 2010, 10:00 PM EDT

This is all a part of the left-wing lie concerning global warming. Once you tell a lie to make your point, it takes further lies to keep that point alive. The anti-capitalists would ,and will do anything to obliterate the Free Enterprise system.

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Monsoonman | Apr 26, 2010, 12:41 PM EDT

Nice one Fast Eddy regarding there are no old bold pilots. My personal favorite is: "It's better to be down here wishing you were up there, rather than being up there wishing you were back down here."

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FastEddy | Apr 26, 2010, 12:14 PM EDT

OK, sure, "not dangerous". So would you board a plane that was headed that way not knowing for sure what might happen to the engines when sucking all that dust?? ... My personal advise would have been not to go. Clueless Media might take that flight ... But I would suspect any pilot who would consider it. There are few old pilots, there are few bold pilots, there are no old, bold pilots.

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Spartans22 | Apr 26, 2010, 11:01 AM EDT

And the air quality at "Ground Zero" posed no health problems for the cops, firefighters and others who volunteered after 9/11. This was according to Christine Whitman, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in the administration of President George W. Bush. Now they're finding out that over 20% of those who spent time there are suffering from severe lung damage.

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icanseetrees | Apr 25, 2010, 05:01 PM EDT

Monsoonman - that's the flight referred to in this article! lol. Though I agree 100% with lulu, better to be safe than sorry - imagine if they had let the planes up without knowing and the plane had crashed! There's be hell to pay.

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lulu5557 | Apr 25, 2010, 03:59 PM EDT

I always say:,"It is better to be safe, than sorry! What's a few days wait rather than a lifetime of no more.........

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Monsoonman | Apr 25, 2010, 12:51 PM EDT

That is a heavy risk, especially at night. If you believe there is no danger, then there is a bridge in London I can sell you, oops I mean in Arizona! Here's what happens when you fly through a volcanic plume:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_9

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