Because of course, the people responsible for making this decision don’t actually know what they’re talking about so yes, I suppose you’re right.
I would suggest they know an awful lot more about it than you.
I mean, there’s never been an incident involving volcanic ash making aircraft engines choke to death so why worry?
Haven’t you heard of the B747 G-BDXH incident before? All four engines surged and flamed out at 37,000 FT due to volcanic ash ingestion, and the crew only managed to restart them at 13,500 FT when the melted ash inside the combustion chambers fell off, which doesn’t give much room for error, given that today’s ash advisories are from the surface to 55,000 FT! An added problem was that the extremely abrasive ash had made the windscreens almost opaque.
And of course volcanic ash stays exactly where it is in the atmosphere and isn’t shifted by winds in any way, shape or form, so it won’t go anywhere.
What an utter load of rubbish. :rolleyes:
Of course volcanic ash is distributed by the upper winds. Some will precipitate to the ground through weight, some through rainfall. Some will stay in the upper atmosphere for thousands of years, forming a thin layer of dust at very high altitudes (80km), mixed in with meteor and space debris. But it takes extremely powerful computer models to take all these factors into consideration, when the meteorological services come up with advice on which areas and flight levels the ash is likely affect.
In other words, armchair experts should give the real guys a break – they are doing their best in rare circumstances!
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