Mother Nature Wins.
It's days like today that are a sober reminder that nature trumps us.
We spend considerable time and money creating systems to buffer ourselves from the natural world.
Whether it be homes to keep out the cold and wind, cars that can drive through rain or snow, or planes that can beat gravity even in some of the worst weather -- we're always trying to contain nature.
But today, were reminded that we can't always do that. The volcanic ash that's spreading from the eruption at the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland is shutting down airspace in northern europe in an unprecedented way.
News reports are saying that nearly 25% of all flights in Europe were canceled Thursday evening, including all in the UK and impacting Amsterdam and Paris starting tonight, and it's unclear when flights will resume.
The ash is currently quite high -- right in the cruise altitudes of commercial jets. And as we learned the hard way in 1982 -- jets can't fly through ash. They'll cause the engines to fail.
in 1982, a British Airways plan from Kuala Lumpur to Perth lost all 4 engines while at cruise. They were able to restart 3 of them on the glide down and land safely, but it showed the power of volcanic ash to bring down a modern jet. The same thing happened in 1989 to a KLM 747 near Anchorage. Again, the plane landed safely, but heavily damaged.
It's not the only naturally occurring phenomenon that we can't fly through. Generally speaking, airliners don't fly through certain types of thunderstorms -- always around them. That is partly for passenger comfort, but also for safety as buffeting wind-shear and lightning pose risks. Planes certainly can't land or take-off in those conditions. Similarly, planes can't take off in certain types of icing, as ice pellets of a certain size can disrupt engine thrust on take-off.
But few phenomenons are as widespread and universally destructive as volcanic ash. Fortunately, these events tend to occur in remote areas near volcanoes -- places like the south pacific and Alaska. Usually the worst that happens is planes have to take longer routes around such an ash cloud. In some cases, that causes cancellations or weight reductions if the equipment can't handle the added mileage.
But a volcanic cloud approaching a place like Europe is unprecedented. I'm sure British Airways passengers are wishing for the strike again instead of this -- at least in that case some flights got out!
I'm not trying to fly around Europe today, so it's easy for me to sit here and marvel at nature and it's true control over our daily lives. Let this be a reminder not to mess with mother nature. She wins, always.
A great Q&A on volcanic ash: Why is Volcanic Ash a Threat to Planes?
Real-time info on air traffic control in Europe: EuroControl's Network Operations Portal
Posted by Evan
