The Eyjafjallajoekull eruption in Iceland has caused havoc in the UK and other countries in the area, including Ireland, Belgium, Holland, and the Scandinavian countries, especially to the airline industry.
As a cloud of ash is sent into the atmoshere, at about 20,000 ft and as high as 55,000 ft (6,000 m – 16,500 m) from Eyjafjallajoekull, the jet stream or winds at that hight are sending the cloud over the above counties air space, making it very dangerous for aircraft.
The fine ash being sent into the atmoshere has been created by Eyjafjallajoekull sending molten lava up through a glacier, the effect of the lava reaching the ice is producing a tremendous amount of steam or clouds, plus the super cooling creates very small particulates of glass.
The effect of these very small particulates if they enter an aircrafts jet engine is devastating. The metal will be eroded, a coating of burned ash within the engine made and the fuel and air intakes will be blocked. The result will be engine failure, as happened when a British Airways 747 flying over Indonesia in 1982 flew through an ash cloud and lost all four engines.
I am due to fly on Turkish Airlines TK1980 from London Heathrow to Istanbul in Turkey tomorrow to give a series of courses, starting Saturday 17th April with a 7 day NLP Practitioner course , and I have been monitoring the situation.
I have just telephoned Turkish Airlines in Turkey to be told tomorrows flight is canceled, and the next available flight could be in four days time, even though I am a frequent flyer and gold card holder of their frequent flyer card.
So Eyjafjallajoekull has even more fallout than ash, their will be no course starting this Saturday, sorry to my participants in Istanbul, we will have to delay the start.
The knock-on effect of fight cancelations affects the whole world, as aircraft cannot takeoff say from the USA to overfly the cloud affected countries. Aircraft are trapped in those countries as are the passengers.
The ash cloud knows no boundaries, it will not just stay over the UK for example, but will follow the jet stream high in the atmosphere perhaps taking in France and Germany.
Oh Poo Poo, I will have to unpack my suitcase and await further news.