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So, this volcano, w...
 

[Closed] So, this volcano, worst case scenario?

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[#1521875]

Continues to erupt for months or years, as it has before. Planes remain grounded, many/all airlines go bust, thousands of jobs go, imports of some goods and post slow to a trickle, related firms go bust. Holiday companies go bust...?

Potential mahoosive problem? (I hope not)


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:15 am
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Boats?

Engine Filters?

MTFU?


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:17 am
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Even if it did continue for ages I don't think the problem would be permanent - the winds do change direction fairly frequently.

Engine Filters?

<Chuckles at the slightly mental thought of a filter on a jet engine>


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:17 am
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they will find a way around it and the idea of engine filters is quite easily put in place but the questions is how long does it have to go on before they do somthing like that....weeks....months?


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:18 am
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worst case scenario is it remains to be a natural 'act of god' and we end up with no one to blame/sue.

GMTV said this morning that we could blame the French but i'm sot so sure


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:20 am
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I think they'll just decide that as long as the planes stay below x,000 feet they'll be ok and take the hit on fuel consumption.


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:20 am
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The eruption may last for years but the glacier that is one of the major reasons why there is so much ash won't last that long. I'm fairly sure that the current weather conditions over Europe are unlikely to last that long either.


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:20 am
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Drop a few tonnes worth of Alka Seltzer in the hole, that should sort it out.

On a serious note, we're meant to be going to the states in June, not now booking hotels till nearer the time, just in case!


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:20 am
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the idea of engine filters is quite easily put in place

Are you aware of the pressure loss a filter capable of removing such fine particles would create and the risk it would pose? No chance in hell it would ever be implemented. We're not talking a K&N and an induction kit here, we're talking engines that swallow tons of air and exhaust at ~60,000mph.


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:20 am
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Personally, I'd rather not MTFU at 33,000 feet, if that's OK with you!


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:21 am
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AIUI part of the problem is caused by the High pressure that's giving us such corking riding weather at the mo - that's giving a northerly airflow from iceland to us then spreading it over europe. as soon as we get a decent low pressure with wind & rain come rolling over the atlantic we'll be back to a SWly airflow and the dust will be blown away from UK airspace. according to the [url= http://www.ecmwf.int/products/forecasts/d/charts/medium/deterministic/msl_uv850_z500 ]ECMWF[/url] that's not looking likely for a few more days yet though.

so, dusty trails or air travel - you can have one or the other...


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:22 am
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dusty trails please.


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:23 am
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Engine Filters?

piston engines are more likely solution

[img] [/img]

[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Merlin ][b]MEATY BOY[/b][/url]

I think i'd move under the heathrow flightpath if every plane had a few of those strapped to it, glorious sound


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:23 am
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the idea of engine filters is quite easily put in place

I'm thinking a pair of tights from a really really big girl, stretched over the engine...like if you're hoovering for something lost. Have I hit on an idea?


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:24 am
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Isn't there a risk that the volcano, which is only one of about 4 in the region, could kick off all it's mates which would make the problem ten times worse?

So anyway, will pollution go up or down compared to normal now with no planes in the sky but one dirty great volcano spewing masses of sulphur dioxide out?


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:24 am
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I'm gonna build a big, unsinkable boat to profiteer from folk needing to cross the Atlantic....
Titanic, I think I'll call her....

Seriously though - it would be a case of back to basics - Easy Ship, Sail Bee, British Sailway* would all be up and running before you knew it... heck - might even promote a overhaul of the railway system...

don't forget Ryan-Walk - charging you to walk anywhere, with a surcharge for using your own shoe leather...

<wakes up, with head in the cornflakes>


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:25 am
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Are all the Gaia people saying it's the earth fighting back against global warming from air travel?


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:26 am
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piston engines are more likely solution

Not sure piston engines are any less susceptible to the problem, in fact possibly more so, especially as they often use super/turbochargers to get their power up, which effectively has turbines in it too... And none of them are sized large enough to carry anything like the volume of people/cargo that jet engines allow.


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:26 am
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pretty sure piston engines are fine, there's still piston engined aircraft flying in and out of Coventry airport at the moment and it's been touted as a solution for extremely high priority flights.


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:29 am
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We'll all be flying about in Hercules soon, arriving deaf!


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:29 am
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don't hercules operate on turboprops which i guess would suffer the same problem (from my limited knowledge)


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:32 am
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pretty sure piston engines are fine, there's still piston engined aircraft flying in and out of Coventry airport at the moment and it's been touted as a solution for extremely high priority flights.

That's probably more to do with the height at which they can fly than anything fundamental about the design of the engine. The fine dust will still tend to clog things up, even in a piston engine and if it is as abrasive as is being implied it would also tend to damage the pistons themselves.


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:32 am
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worst case scenario - the world will end.


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:33 am
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Im amazed at the fact that the news coverage hasnt been its usual useful over-sensationalisation of the actual facts! When you think how they managed to blow the world out of the water with their credit crunch reporting on what started as a rather inocuous blip on the financial radar, this is back page by comparison!
Its almost as if they have been warned not to report big on this! When you think of the possible ramifications of this should it continue for any length of time, its amazing they arent shouting armageddon!!!!


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:34 am
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you can't just fly the planes lower. thers still a risk of some ash lower in the atmostphere, and the consequences of losing 4 engines whilst flying low are much worse than at 35000ft.

looks like it could continue anyway...
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18786-get-ready-for-decades-of-icelandic-fireworks.html


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:35 am
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coffeeking - Member
Not sure piston engines are any less susceptible to the problem, in fact possibly more so, especially as they often use super/turbochargers to get their power up, which effectively has turbines in it too... And none of them are sized large enough to carry anything like the volume of people/cargo that jet engines allow.

Incorrect, it's been around for a while now...

[img] [/img]


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:36 am
 br
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Funny that, I said the same Day One.

Based on reading this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1883_eruption_of_Krakatoa


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:38 am
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just needs a bit of a spruce up to get it airworthy again 😉


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:38 am
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What are the actual chances that a plane taking off from Heathrow on Saturday to fly to New York would have crashed?

I've a sneaking suspicion we'll MTFU and accept slightly worse odds rather than allowing the collapse of our civilisation. 🙂


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:40 am
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I've a sneaking suspicion we'll MTFU and accept slightly worse odds rather than allowing the collapse of our civilisation.

And I've a slightly less sneaking ffffing suspicion that you're very ffffing wrong old chap! 😉
Well, for me anyway. I crap my pants every time I fly!


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:43 am
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I blame Thatcher & the miners for the whole fiasco 🙄

My brother in-law who works for sleazy jet (manager on the maintence side) seems quite worried that its going to have a massive effect on air travel long term but the long and short of it is that we just don't know. Its all down to mother nature and things could be (almost) back to normal within a few days, well except for the back log of passengers stuck around europe 😯


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:54 am
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Yep I'm with PP on that. I hate flying at the best of times. MTFU is not something you want to do in a tin can at 35'000ft !!!!


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:55 am
 hora
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Worse case?
I'd have to go without exotic fruit and source my flowers elsewhere 🙄


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:56 am
 Olly
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worst case scenario is somehow it disturbs and sets off Yellow stone and the world goes from being round to kind of "jaffa cake, half moon" shaped and subsequntly develops a hell of a wobble and we all fall off.

😀
win


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:56 am
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Incorrect, it's been around for a while now...

Yup, and there's thousands of them kitted out and ready to fly passengers everywhere.... 🙂


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 10:57 am
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[i]MTFU is not something you want to do in a tin can at 35'000ft !!!! [/i]

Isn't the point that you are already putting up with a small and carefully managed risk of fiery death? If the volcano increases the risk tenfold (and I've no idea if that's the right order of magnitude at all - somebody?) then it still rounds down to nil pretty easily. It'll be fine. Especially if there was a parachute under your seat. 😀


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 11:01 am
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Remember though - [url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8629160.stm ]every cloud has a silver lining[/url]


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 11:03 am
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Remember though - every cloud has a silver lining

That is indeed a blessing. 😀


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 11:14 am
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Dust off a couple of Concordes! 🙂 Thread them up through thinner patches of the dust, 60,000 feet cruise, charge what you like, job done, it could pay to keep one flying for special doos! 🙂


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 11:28 am
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Anyone else see a great future for airships 🙂


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 11:46 am
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It's not just the safety aspect: it's the damage to the planes. If they have to have new engines / refurbs and new cockpit glass every few flights, it'll make air travel uneconomic.


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 11:49 am
 goog
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can't the Americans blow it up, that usually fixes things, no ?


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 11:50 am
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Why hasn't anyone called international rescue yet? They're set up to solve these sort of problems.


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 11:50 am
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1143 Dutch airline KLM tweets: KLM test flight Amsterdam-Paris landed safely at 11.40hrs. Technical inspection points out: no problems detected.


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 11:57 am
 hora
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1143 Dutch airline KLM tweets: KLM test flight Amsterdam-Paris landed safely at 11.40hrs. Technical inspection points out: no problems detected.

Yes, because a commercial operator wouldnt be biased. no sir-ree....


 
Posted : 19/04/2010 11:58 am
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