Flying with Volcanic Ash !!

The whole Volcanic ash saga wont strain you a bit, if you are not part of it. And yes I am affected. It could have gone worse if I ended up in Chicago airport unaware that my flight got delayed by 4 days.

The Volcano “Eyjafjallajökull” (God!!! I cant pronounce it :P) is erupting Volcanic ash for some days and this ash is on travelling spree all over Europe and farther locations, thanks to the winds. Due to this almost all Europe is a no-fly zone.

People who believe, they can pronounce it or even want to give it a try .. here are some pointers - Some sources suggest that you can pronounce it as “ay-yah-FYAH’-plah-yer-kuh-duhl” or you can try “AY-yah-fyah-lah-YOH-kuul”. Suit yourself.

I could not resist myself from digging in deep to find out what is keeping airliners from what they are supposed to do, .. fly. The outcomes are quite scientific –

The Volcanic Ash from the Icelandic volcano is composed of same ingredients we use for making “glass” and this Volcanic ash, which is on its euro-trip is boosted into the atmosphere at the same altitude where the modern Jetliners fly.

Also, It is hard to distinguish the ash cloud from the other “normal” cloud in the atmosphere. So the Jetliners eventually will inhale these ingredients for glass making into their Jet engines and will heat it (not intentionally !!) to 1400 degrees, not knowing that actually they are making glass, very much up in the air :).

So this accidentally made glass inside the Jet engines will not do any good, but will jam the Engines at approx 35000 feet. Now you can imagine, what is this fuss all about!!
More information can be found here.

Nobody wants their flight to take a dip with jammed engines from that height. So, no passengers are whining in flight cancellations, however, there is a huge inconvenience for all. Airlines are loosing hundreds of millions of dollar per day. Some are conducting passenger less tests, to find out what can be the actual damage on the aircraft.

Interestingly, there were some 90 incidents reported when Jetliners had been damaged by Volcanic ash in last three decades, but no one has imagined the impact of this Eyjafjallajökull eruption will be at this much higher scale, because,  last time it erupted more than a hundred years ago!! and at time ones who used the airways … were birds :). So this is something that we are facing for the first time.

Hoping, that Mr. Eyjafjallajökull will soon go back to sleep and I can fly back home. Last time it erupted the Volcanic ash for 2 years. I just don't want to imagine that in the current scenario.

 

 

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