As ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano continued to keep European airspace shut down over the weekend, affecting millions of travelers around the world, some government agencies and airlines clashed over the flight bans.
Some restricted airspace is now beginning to open up and some limited flights are being allowed now as airlines are pushing for the ability to judge safety conditions for themselves.
The volcano continues to rumble and hurl ash skyward, if at a slightly diminished rate now, as the dispersing ash plume has dropped closer to the ground, and the World Health Organization has issued a health warning to Europeans with respiratory conditions.
2 comment(s):
"airlines are pushing for the ability to judge safety conditions for themselves"
And if one of their planes crashes as a result of damage caused by the ash will they be willing to accept the blame? Of course not, they'll either try to claim an act of god or try to blame the authorities for allowing them to fly.
This tells us all we need to know about the airlines. They are happy to put public safety below their profits.
On the contrary, Anon, the air traffic bans were based on computer models; no one went out to actually see how much ash was in the atmosphere, which the airlines did with their test flights. That and the powers that be had that silly 'no amount of ash is safe' line of thinking - based on that, no one would be flying, since the atmosphere always has aerosols of all types in it, and this ash will eventually envelope the world because it was blasted so high.
The airlines know full well that if one of their planes crashed because of volcanic ash, it would destroy them. There's a difference between putting profits before public safety, and taking the precautionary principle to extremes, which is what the flight bans were doing in many areas. Perhaps if the bans were based on actual atmospheric data, rather than models, the airlines wouldn't be objecting so strenuously.
Post a Comment