Travel Industry News
Ashy and cloudy with a chance of travel
Wednesday, 21, April 2010
Even if you weren’t traveling internationally over the past week, you would need your head stuck in a cloud of volcanic ash to miss the havoc Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano has been wreaking on the community of travelers worldwide.While most fliers are accustomed to weather delays, disruptions are usually cleared up within a few hours or a day or two. The thought of six or more days of quiet skies brings back eerie memories of September 11, 2001.
Since the volcanic cloud began creeping over northern Europe’s densely-populated countries last week, several of my friends have been directly affected. Some in Paris are emailing descriptions of the gloomy ash haze. One from Florida has had to wait out the cloud before he can return home to his family from a “quick” business trip to Germany.Engineers are concerned the sand and glass-like particles that make up the ash will do catastrophic damage to airplanes flying through the haze by congealing in the engine turbine, blocking air flow and shutting down the engines altogether.
