Icelandic Volcanic Eruption - Significant Disruption to UK Flights

Slam62

Slam62

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Jokester said:
Problem is the Market would reward those that were cheaper forcing airlines that attempted to horde cash for a rainy day out of business.
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In the effort to optimise fiscal performance most modern business's operate along a very fine line. Any business that isn't up to it's neck in debt is considered bad because it could be investing said debt to make more money---apparantly. Which does lead to a bit of a problem when turnover doesn't quite work out as planned.
 

Le_Petit_Lapin

Le_Petit_Lapin

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-Tauren- said:
they need to take a leaf out of google's books ;)
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Googles browser sucks too. Try N900. :cool:

Radiation said:
Isn't it about time they came up with a new engine, perhaps some sort of device that works as well as i imagine an antigravity one might?
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Oh yes, they'll just magic one out out of thin air? You dont just sit down one day with your team of boffins and say "right chaps, stick the kettle on and lets make an antigravity engine" and a few weeks down the line have a working prototype.

You can be sure theres people working on the theory of it, but they havent had any breakthroughs.
 
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PlumpMonkey

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This NASA report of a DC-8 brush with a volcanic ash cloud in 2000 is pretty interesting

http://www.alpa.org/portals/alpa/volcanicash/03_NASADC8AshDamage.pdf

Note they said that the air crew didnt know they flew into it as it wasn't visible, but did cause some pretty serious issues to the engines.

SUMMARY

In the early morning hours of February 28, 2000, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) DC-8 Airborne Sciences research airplane inadvertently flew through a diffuse plume of volcanic ash from the Mt. Hekla volcano. There were no indications to the flight crew, but sensitive onboard instruments detected the 35-hr-old ash plume. Upon landing there was no visible damage to the airplane or engine first-stage fan blades; later borescope inspection of the engines revealed clogged turbine cooling air passages. The engines were removed and overhauled at a cost of $3.2 million. Satellite data analysis of the volcanic ash plume trajectory indicated the ash plume had been transported further north than predicted by atmospheric effects. Analysis of the ash particles collected in cabin air heat exchanger filters showed strong evidence of volcanic ash, most of which may have been ice-coated (and therefore less damaging to the airplane) at the time of the encounter. Engine operating temperatures at the time of the encounter were sufficiently high to cause melting and fusing of ash on and inside high-pressure turbine blade cooling passages. There was no evidence of engine damage in the engine trending results, but some of the turbine blades had been operating partially uncooled and may have had a remaining lifetime of as little as 100 hr. There are currently no fully reliable methods available to flight crews to detect the presence of a diffuse, yet potentially damaging volcanic ash cloud.
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I wonder what these guys up and flying about over Europe are really doing to the engines? I wonder what we may see happen to these planes in a few weeks/months.
 

FreeStream

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PlumpMonkey said:
A couple of flights from the US set off a while ago (one from Denver and one from Calgary) They are currently just over northern Ireland.

Heres a cool website that shows you positions of current planes :)

http://www.radarvirtuel.com/
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Been posted a few times ;)

As for people asking about engines, sadly unless the blades can be removed or the operating temps are reduced its not going to happen.

Higher temps = more efficient engines just FYI...
 

PlumpMonkey

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Pretty sure it was LHR. I think they took off when they though UK airspace would be open at 7pm.

Note that some planes are flying over the UK at 35k feet. I think the ash cloud is at around 20k, so planes cant take off from the UK as they have to pass through this level.
 

Westyfield2

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Jokester said:
Any idea what the destination of the Denver flight is?
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Both the Calgary and Denver ones are going to LHR... allegedly!


BAW102
Callsign: BAW102
Flightnr: BA102
Reg: G-BNWC
Hex: 40041D
Model: Boeing 767-336ER (B763)
Airline: British Airways
Lat: 54.72681
Lon: -6.28202
Altitude: 35000 feet (10668 m)
Ground speed: 517 knots
(957 km/h / 595 mph)
Track: 124°
Radar: NET2
From : Calgary, Calgary (YYC)
To: London, Heathrow (LHR)

BAW17V
Callsign: BAW17V
Flightnr: BA218
Reg: G-YMMS
Hex: 405BFC
Model: Boeing 777-236ER (B772)
Airline: British Airways
Lat: 54.4574
Lon: -5.7131
Altitude: 37000 feet (11278 m)
Ground speed: 525 knots
(972 km/h / 604 mph)
Track: 125°
Radar: EINN
From : Denver, Denver (DEN)
To: London, Heathrow (LHR)
 

LabR@t

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-Tauren- said:
i guess a lot of people (like myself) are unaware that this is happening. it is pretty scary thinking of it. oh man im gonna miss technology so much, thats assuming i survive! heh..
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It could happen in 5 mins or another 500 million years? But it has erupted roughly every 650,000 years or so according to geology and guess what! last eruption was more than 650,000 years ago !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


scary
 

Westyfield2

Westyfield2

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Westyfield2 said:
Both the Calgary and Denver ones are going to LHR... allegedly!


BAW102
Callsign: BAW102
Flightnr: BA102
Reg: G-BNWC
Hex: 40041D
Model: Boeing 767-336ER (B763)
Airline: British Airways
Lat: 54.72681
Lon: -6.28202
Altitude: 35000 feet (10668 m)
Ground speed: 517 knots
(957 km/h / 595 mph)
Track: 124°
Radar: NET2
From : Calgary, Calgary (YYC)
To: London, Heathrow (LHR)

BAW17V
Callsign: BAW17V
Flightnr: BA218
Reg: G-YMMS
Hex: 405BFC
Model: Boeing 777-236ER (B772)
Airline: British Airways
Lat: 54.4574
Lon: -5.7131
Altitude: 37000 feet (11278 m)
Ground speed: 525 knots
(972 km/h / 604 mph)
Track: 125°
Radar: EINN
From : Denver, Denver (DEN)
To: London, Heathrow (LHR)
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But according to http://www.heathrowairport.com/?searchArrivalFrom=From#

Sched. Flight No. Arriving from Status Terminal
19:15 BA102 CALGARY CANCELLED 5
19:20 BA218 DENVER CANCELLED 5

Hmm...
 
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gizmoy2k

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declare emergency on approach to London area.....are the really gonna say no??? :p

I tell you what other airline will be ragin if BA have special dispensation to land for whatever reason

The Denver flight just Swung for Dublin :(

Edit
U-turn now for Belfast probs

Might be in a holing pattern until the last minute to see if they can get in
 
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Slinky1989

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Look! Contrails!!!1!1!!

b5dd688b.jpg


seen on the train between chippenham and swindon. They were heading west.
 
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