Very sorry for our European friends being affected by Volcano

[e1sbaer]

According to HK Post: "Due to the disruption of flights caused by the volcanic eruption in Iceland, there is a backlog of international air mail items (including Speedpost) destined for European destinations currently held at Hongkong Post pending resumption of flights to Europe. With the huge demand built up for air cargo space to Europe, Hongkong Post expects that it may take weeks to clear the existing backlog after the frequency of flights to Europe returns to the levels before the volcanic eruption. Customers are therefore strongly advised to refrain from sending air mail to European destinations until further notice."

My main order is from the US but that will probably be the same scenario. Plus that customs may need more time to process it all. Well, we'll wait patiently.
A former piloting spokesman was interviewed and he claimed that the government should not be the one making decisions whether to close the airspace for an event like this. In his opinion airspace should only be closed down in areas where the concentration of ash in the air is too high. Now, they just closed it completely. Testflights have shown that in several parts of the closed airspace, it was safe to fly. Even the aircraft filters stayed clean. Although a (former) pilot's opinion might be biased, I tend to believe that taken measures were to extreme.

 

[LuxLuthor]

My main order is from the US but that will probably be the same scenario. Plus that customs may need more time to process it all. Well, we'll wait patiently.
A former piloting spokesman was interviewed and he claimed that the government should not be the one making decisions whether to close the airspace for an event like this. In his opinion airspace should only be closed down in areas where the concentration of ash in the air is too high. Now, they just closed it completely. Testflights have shown that in several parts of the closed airspace, it was safe to fly. Even the aircraft filters stayed clean. Although a (former) pilot's opinion might be biased, I tend to believe that taken measures were to extreme.

It's easy to "Monday Morning Quarterback" how things should have been best handled after the weekend's game. However, it is always wiser to err on the side of public safety when an unusual event like this occurs. Everyone dismisses what would have happened if a dozen planes crashed because someone approved flights before being absolutely certain of the danger.

In retrospect after 9/11, was it entirely necessary to close down the entire USA airspace? It was a similar prudent public safety reaction until you knew the full extent of what you are dealing with.

 

[e1sbaer]

It's easy to "Monday Morning Quarterback" how things should have been best handled after the weekend's game. However, it is always wiser to err on the side of public safety when an unusual event like this occurs. Everyone dismisses what would have happened if a dozen planes crashed because someone approved flights before being absolutely certain of the danger.

In retrospect after 9/11, was it entirely necessary to close down the entire USA airspace? It was a similar prudent public safety reaction until you knew the full extent of what you are dealing with.

I don't think these situations are completely comparable. The difference being that the pilots view was given already shortly after the close down announcement and pilots have dealt with natural phenomenon like an ash cloud situation before in other parts of the world where they follow (as I understood from the interview) a standard procedure. This event is not new and highly unpredictable like 9/11.
Of course a complete close down till the ash vanishes is always safest.

By the way, my jetbeam was delivered this morning

 

[LuxLuthor]

I don't think these situations are completely comparable. The difference being that the pilots view was given already shortly after the close down announcement and pilots have dealt with natural phenomenon like an ash cloud situation before in other parts of the world where they follow (as I understood from the interview) a standard procedure. This event is not new and highly unpredictable like 9/11.
Of course a complete close down till the ash vanishes is always safest.

By the way, my jetbeam was delivered this morning

Pilots are not engineers, vulcanologists, meteorologists, nor do they have the responsibility of an entire airline company, region, or nation.

I'll let the pilot fly the plane he is cleared and competent to fly. Decisions about air hazards from volcanic ash should be made by people with different skill sets, larger viewpoints, and appropriate education and responsibility to care for public safety.

 

[StarHalo]

 

[RepProdigious]

Pilots are not engineers, vulcanologists, meteorologists, nor do they have the responsibility of an entire airline company, region, or nation.

I'll let the pilot fly the plane he is cleared and competent to fly. Decisions about air hazards from volcanic ash should be made by people with different skill sets, larger viewpoints, and appropriate education and responsibility to care for public safety.

I know a pilot who also has a degree in engineering! He flies for Lufthansa!

I dont know how this could be of any help tho..... :thinking:

It certainly won't get my 47's order here faster, thats for sure...... :mecry:

 

[Dez]

Pilots are not engineers, vulcanologists, meteorologists, nor do they have the responsibility of an entire airline company, region, or nation.

I'll let the pilot fly the plane he is cleared and competent to fly. Decisions about air hazards from volcanic ash should be made by people with different skill sets, larger viewpoints, and appropriate education and responsibility to care for public safety.

Yeah, and considering that the other performance calculations are mostly based on a 1/1000000 scenario it would be rather stupid to say that we can just take a chance this time and see how it goes.

 

[Eric242]

It certainly won't get my 47's order here faster, thats for sure...... :mecry:

Well, I´ve ordered an Inka Pen from someone within the US on april 21st and it just arrived today. It appears to be back to normal.....

Eric

 

[e1sbaer]

Translation from the newspaper today about recent airspace closing.
One step closer to acknowledgement that decisions about closing airspace should be made by people who know what they're talking about.



Closing airspace unnecessary, May 17 2010


Leading KLM (Royal Dutch Airline Company) calls the radical measure to shut down essential parts of the airspace, misplaced.

According to the president-director of KLM, the measure was an overreaction. Hartman wants airline companies to regain control. Officially the airline companies decide based on information provided by governments and meteorologist services, where and when they fly. According to him, decisions in case of ashclouds should be taken based on measured concentrations. De airplanes which arrived this morning from different destinations worldwide, had no ash remains whatsoever in their
engines.

KLM and other airline companies, again lost several millions monday. People just don't understand this anymore either.
The only advantage of the closing this time is, they didn't lock up the airspace completely.

European airline companies united in sending a letter to the European ministers of transport emphasizing that a change of
procedures is necessary. We must convert to the US system where the airspace never gets closed. (eisbaer note: 9/11
must be the exception).

The Dutch transport minister (Eurlings) pointed out that Europe is discussing how to handle situations like ashclouds. "We must
investigate if the responsibility can be transferred to the sector itself. Why is it, this is already done in the rest of the world but not here" .

According to Eurlings it's now time for the next step. First the whole airspace was closed, now it might be that we go and talk with airplane constructors to find out what is and isn't possible.

source: www.nu.nl