Flights cancelled due to volcanic ash cloud from Iceland, Eyjafjallajokull

[Propwash]

Grootste vliegveld Duitsland weer open (Telegraaf.nl)

Frankfurt am Main Airport (EDDF / FRA) re-opens till 20.00 tonight (Northerly in and outbound flights only)

[sn26567]

Swiss International Air Lines Update: Swiss airspace stays closed until Monday afternoon, therefore we have decided to cancel all European flights on Monday (19 April) with departure before 18h CEST and all long-haul flights for the full day. Please do not come to the airport, but check swiss.com for further information on rebooking and refund options.

[Darjeeling]

This looks like increasingly to the H1N1 influenza joke.

Stealing our money, panicking people and promote the society of fear is all the Govt authorities are all about.

This will emerge after a few investigation commissions I guess.

[Airbuspilot]

I am afraid this all has been a knee-jerk reaction by overzealous EU bureacrats thinking thek know all there is to know about aviation.

From the beginning their statements did not fall in line with the SIGMET charts published. It was just based on a mathematical prediction. Considering the cost involved, the disruption caused and the consequences this exercice can have on the global economy one has to be mamzed that they have been authorsed to take such a decision without real proof.

100 Milion EURO per day is a first shy estimate of the economical cost. Any CEO in the world who takes such a decision without any significant proof would be thrown in jail instantly.

OK, safety first. I agree. But at least have the guts to do some real time measurements afterwards.And if then proven wrong, just admit it and re-open your airspace.

The remarks about the Pinatubo eruption just say it all...

[sn26567]

The closure of European airports irritates airlines. The two largest German airlines, Lufthansa and Air Berlin, criticised autkorities for the absence of calculation of the concentration of volcanic ash present in the atmosphere. They have performed domestic flights on Saturday without passengers and did not obserrve "any dommage". Air France and KLM did the same on Sunday.

The cost for the airline sector is estimated at 200 million USD per day. Brussels Airlines has sollicited governmental help. KLM asks for restarting air traffic. (SWISS TXT)

Today's test flights indicate flying is safe. We hope the authorities will allow resuming passenger flights shortly. (KLM on Twitter)

[sn26567]

Tonight, KLM will operate three commercial flights to the Far East. Only cargo on board, no passengers. The three flights will be performed by B747 combi aircraft and are approved by the aviation authorities.

[luchtzak]

Ryanair cancels flights till wednesday: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=41869

Most airports in France closed till Tuesday: http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/6836/Vulkaanui ... sdag.dhtml

[Propwash]

Tonight, KLM will operate three commercial flights to the Far East. Only cargo on board, no passengers. The three flights will be performed by B747 combi aircraft and are approved by the aviation authorities.

Dutch Airspace reopend this afternoon for motorized VFR traffic as well

Note: gliders and balloons were already permitted.

[NCB]

Willie Walsh will board a British Airways B747 test flight later this evening.

Airlines in Europe are starting to realise that government decisions may have been based on data lacking accuracy. Governments can not provide scientific measurements and are basing decisions on numerical models.

So far, Air France-KLM, British Airways, Lufthansa and Air Berlin, airlines that have respectable engineering units have flown test or positioning flights and conducted post-flight inspections without finding residual evidence of ash particles.

Etienne Schouppe must be sweating right now.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/20 ... sures.html
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/20 ... h-hit.html

I think that the danger exists but that the extent in area may have been overrated.
The government has a liability towards taxpaying airlines, its passengers and staff to provide accurate evidence and information. I think that it is also the government's responsibility to organise sampling, surveying and once civil operations start gain, to monitor the PPM of ash in the Belgian airspace in order to guarrantee safety at all times.

Airlines should demand that government helicopters be used to provide that information in a transparent way. If evidence shows that the airspace was closed based on wrong evidence and bad decision-making, governments that decided to close their airspaces shall pay for the financial and commercial disaster they have caused during one of few lucrative periods of the year.

[LJ]

The government has a liability towards taxpaying airlines, its passengers and staff to provide accurate evidence and information. I think that it is also the government's responsibility to organise sampling, surveying and once civil operations start gain, to monitor the PPM of ash in the Belgian airspace in order to guarrantee safety at all times.

Therefore, it is strange that from a public point of view it's the airlines doing the work, not the government. However, we don't know what happens behind the scenes. Anyway bad PR for the government.

[Propwash]

Dutch NOTAM

A0463/10 - DUE TO VOLCANIC ACTIVITY IN ICELAND AND THE RESULTING ASHCLOUDS IN THE AMSTERDAM FIR, ALL CIVIL IFR OPERATIONS ARE PROHIBITED.

VFR FLIGHTS ARE ALLOWED AT OWN DISCRETION. AFTER COMPLETING EACH VFR FLIGHT A PILOT REPORT SHOULD BE FILED IMMEDIATLY TO VULKAAN(AT)KNMI.NL CONTAINING FOLLOWING INFORMATION: ROUTE, ALTITUDE,DATE AND TIME OF FLIGHT IN LOCAL TIME, OBSERVATIONS REGARDING (ASH)CLOUDS. EVEN WHEN NO OBSERVATIONS HAVE BEEN MADE A PILOT REPORT IS MANDATORY. WHEN EMAIL IS NOT AVBL A PILOT REPORT CAN BE MADE TO LOCAL ATC BY RADIO OR AIRPORT AUTHORITY. ALSO, CAA-NL STATES THE PITOT TUBE SHOULD BE CHECKED CAREFULLY BEFORE AND AFTER EACH FLIGHT AND ALSO INCREASED MONITORING OF FLIGHT SPEED AND HEIGHT INDICATION AND WINDSCREEN TRANSPARENCY DURING FLIGHT IN THE RISK AREA. POLICE, SAR AND HEMS FLIGHTS ARE EXEMPTED. SFC/FL245

Hopefully our diaper king (Etienne Adolf S) will allow VFR as well

[NCB]

BA9156 with Willie Walsh on board now overhead Ireland at 26000ft.
KLM cargo flight overhead Poland, 36000ft, inbound TPE.

http://www.radarvirtuel.com/

[Propwash]

AFL315 (SVO to JFK) is also airborne taking a Southern route

A/C Type Airbus 333 (VQ-BEL)

Condor is also airborne with 4 (four) aircrafts.

Nice article for our diaper king Etienne Adolf S.

[tolipanebas]

Etienne Schouppe must be sweating right now.

Well, honesty dictates to say he's not really thinking for himself, but rather just doing what the other secretaries of transport are doing, but that in itself in pretty pathetic actually.

His rather arrogant comment to the remarks about the LH's and KLM's test flights is telling it all: "if results would have been so wonderful as these airlines say, they would be flying again", meaning he doesn't know the results nor is expecting to hear of them, but is simply just going by the decisions the Dutch and German CAA take, which are apparently now both backtracking slowly as they must timidly admit that indeed they have based their decisions solely on a mathematical model WITHOUT conducting a single observation from a weather balloon or a plane and can no longer discard the ever increasing stream of data from a large number of flights which have actually bothered to operate!

Finally,I'd like to add that must be a very weird ash cloud over our heads, able to distinguish between test, ferry, cargo and government planes on one side which are now allowed to fly again and all operate normally and without any ash observations whatsoever, and pax planes on the other side which are all kept on the ground because it is way too dangerous to fly.

One must probably have politician brains not to see the absurdity of this all!

Let's bring the feathers and tar out, because some ministers are in need of a special treatment!

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

First :
Altough I have my serious doubts of closing down european aerospace for this reason
I sure can understand the toughts of 'diaper king' .
( and as U all know I'm not that kind of our favourite belgian politicians )
The first problem of the government is closing down and than relay back on nothing?
Where are the serious scientific organisations dealing with this?
More : where are their reports ?
But : better NOT fly then a crash !

Second :
I regret reading that some of our smartest members (oa. tolipanebas) prefer to fly with
a small chance/risk without serious scientific info !
A few topics ago these same pilots won't fly with even a small risk ( ref. exit second pilot ).
These risks are close the same by me (very small).
Except in this case they won't fly and now they do.
I very regret these visions, risks are okay if there fine in their opinions ??
I guesses they would follow Mr.diaper but no..

If they will gain more revenue for SN maybe they can fly on one pilot the next days so more rotations can be done.

Not okay for me ( my grandfather is flying SN next friday (I hope ) ).

Blame the government for not sending balloons,.. getting real info on this but so long don't ask
them/push them for incalulating small risks !!
Aviation lost already a polish president/government doing this !

Hoping for more understanding from us more smarter members!!!

Flying with risks isn't better than not flying, aviation isn't all about economy.
Those members told us this many times,why not now? ( selfish reasons ? )

CX-B

Note:
See-ing again FR taking better conclusions far further than the others.

[schouppe]

Belgian airspace closed till 1800z 19/04/2010 and worsening.....

[Filip146]

No Brussels Airlines flights until tuesday 12:00LT !!

[Filip146]

Belgian airspace closed till 1800z 19/04/2010 and worsening.....

worsening... can you be more specific? What is your source?

[tolipanebas]

Second :
I regret reading that some of our smartest members (oa. tolipanebas) prefer to fly with
a small chance/risk without serious scientific info !

The Dutch Pilot Association is also asking to lift the ban now, BTW.

Basically, we have BA, LH, KL, AF as well as most professional associations all asking to lift the ban, not because these PROFESSIONALS are a bunch of kamikazes who all want to keep flying even if it means taking huge risks, but because they are slowly realizing they have fallen victim to a bunch of panicking AMATEURS who don't know what they are talking about really and have decided to shoot with a bazooka on a mosquito.

Blame the government for not sending balloons,.. getting real info on this but so long don't ask
them/push them for incalulating small risks !!

Since no government is doing what it is supposed to do, airlines have done it for them;
KL
BA
LH
AF
ALL have done test flights and NONE of them have found anything.

That dangerous ash cloud a computer animation shows hanging over Europe for days simply isn't there, let's face it... It's fully in line with how ash clouds have behaved in the past at previous eruptions too BTW: e.g. the Pinatubo.

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

Since when are airliners scientific organisations?
Does SN have (one) scientific geologist-vulcano-ist in service?
Radar/Sattelite views weren't there??
BBC site is bullshit ?

Come on , don't push it.
Even 50/100 testflights aren't accurate enough to set up a global european
mathematic right scientific model, and you know it!
Don't push it!

Better to reroute on lower altitude with lesser planes or so..
I don't know..
But don't say that is 100% safe for fly because it's just ( in uw kraam (nl) ).

If only airliners know the right conclusion why not the government ?
Because they like to pay our tax for help for SN in the future ?

CX-B