Icelandic Cloud of Airplane Death - anyone affected

[roddy]

Looks like there's mounting pressure from the aviation industry to get things moving again - safety first and all that, but if the airlines are willing to send up their expensive planes, I'd be willing to get on one.

[Lu]

Well, I'm glad I don't have any flights planned, would rather not be in one of the first planes to try to get through the cloud. If it wasn't safe last week, I don't believe it somehow is now, nothing has changed as far as I know.

Amusing story, seen on tv last Thursday or so:

A plane, one of the very few to land that day, has made it through the cloud, I think it was actually from Iceland itself. The lucky passengers are immediately interviewed by the media. Did you notice anything about the cloud? a journalist asks one man. Nah, said the man, I think the plane flew lower than usual, we only had fog all the way.

[Comrade]

Maybe this'll provide the impetus for the London to Beijing rail line.

It's possible to travel from London to Beijing by train, just not on a single train. One can get from London to mainland Europe by train, and take a train from France or Germany to Moscow, then take one of the Moscow-Beijing trains from there.

[chrix]

Excuse me, Lu, but the situation is changing every day. Changes in weather conditions, volcano activity influence the distribution of the volcano ash, vertically and horizontally. I'm no expert so I can't tell what these changes mean for aviation safety, but the situation is changing as we speak.

[Meng Lelan]

It must be fun to be a geologist in Iceland. I would like to see a volcano.

[chrix]

the Rachel Maddow Show just had a volcanologist on working for the USGS in Alaska, and who flew in a plane around an erupting volcano there in 2008:

(the interview starts before that)

[chrix]

Actually now I hear I'm affected indirectly as well: a family member from Gothenburg can't make it to his class reunion as flights were cancelled, the ferry would probably be booked out too, and it's a drag to take the overnight ferry just for so you can spend one day at your destination...

[Daan]

A colleague is stuck in Taiwan [...] if you know anyone who got stuck at Schiphol or wants to go to Holland, pm me :-)

Works the other way around as well

[Lu]

It must be fun to be a geologist in Iceland. I would like to see a volcano.

Another cool story: An Icelandic geologist, specialized in that specific volcano, was in Europe (I think even in Holland) for a conference. Then the volcano started working, and he couldn't fly back to Iceland. On one hand, that was a pity: here was 'his' volcano exploding, and he couldn't be there to see and research it. On the other hand, it was great: here was the big expert on the volcano, who could explain to us all what was going on, and we had him right here in the country!

[randall_flagg]

So we are being bombarded with news and updates on the ash-traffic-chaos story.

But there is one bit of information that seems conspicuously absent: What happens if your visa expired and you were supposed to have left the country you are visiting?

[chrix]

no it's not. I've seen news reports mention the visa issue.

[Lu]

But there is one bit of information that seems conspicuously absent: What happens if your visa expired and you were supposed to have left the country you are visiting?

Not entirely the same, but there are 1300 people stuck in Holland's main airport, and they are stuck there mostly because they were to transfer in Holland, and don't have visa to get past customs. Visa applications of people in this situation are now being processed as quickly as possible, so they can at least leave the airport.

[roddy]

Looks like UK airspace is going to start opening up tomorrow morning (their time). How open and for how long is anyone's guess, but it seems the volcano has quietened down . . .

[jbradfor]

I was in Japan when the "incident" occurred; we weren't affected, as we returned back to America. In fact, O'Hare seemed slightly less poorly run than usually, probably due to fewer people.

Other attendees at the conference returning to Europe weren't so lucky. One person was scheduled to return the 17th, was rebooked to the 22nd. Extra 5 days forced vacation!

Can anyone point me to some information on exactly why the flights were grounded? What damage does the ash do? Is it just the ash / particulate matter damaging the engines? Or something else?

[roddy]

Ash goes into the engine, melts, sticks to things, engine stops. Almost-worst case scenario which has been referred to constantly this week.

[Lu]

But there is one bit of information that seems conspicuously absent: What happens if your visa expired and you were supposed to have left the country you are visiting?

A bit late perhaps, but embassies seem to have some information now. The Chinese embassy in Holland is explaining what Chinese people with overdue visas can do (go to the municipal immigration bureau with passport and cancelled ticket, and have it extended), the Dutch embassy in China says that European countries have jointly called on China to be lenient with visa, and at various airports stranded travellers can show their cancelled ticket and have their visa extended. I suppose other countries have similar procedures.

[Scoobyqueen]

I made it onto the first flight to Beijing arriving this morning. I was amazed at how empty both the plane and the airport were. It seems people hadnt realised the flying ban had been (partially) lifted. Apparently my plane had 93 people on stand by but the plane was half full, today's plane is supposed to have 270 people on stand by but I am wondering if people have just postponed their meetings etc out of fear of getting stranded somewhere.

[Scoobyqueen]

I would love to know how you pronounce the name of the volcano eyjafjällajökull. Does anyone know?

[Daan]

Check out this post at Language Log.

[skylee]

and that important guy told us that he had received a message from the airlines telling him that he would have a seat on a flight to HK tomorrow.

oh and i hope that my consultant could get back to sydney as planned and start working.