O’Leary hits out at aviation authorities
The airline’s chief executive hit out at aviation authorities after he was forced to cancel almost 70 flights between Ireland, Scotland and mainland Europe when a high density cloud from the Grimsvotn volcano was detected in Scottish airspace.
Mr O’Leary spent the day berating Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the British Met Office, accusing them of “incompetence”, dismissing the ash cloud hazard as “mythical” and claiming the reports used to back up their grounding order are “duff”.
He sent a test flight into Scottish airspace designated by the Met Office as a red zone — an area where the ash is measured at high density — and said no ash was encountered and none found on the frame or in the engine of the aircraft.
“Not alone is there not dense material over Scotland, there is not even light material over Scotland. The only dense material is, I’m afraid, in the Met Office in London,” he said.
However, the CAA later said the test flight had not flown into the red zone.
British transport secretary Philip Hammond dismissed the exercise. “The only thing Ryanair have proved is that there is no ash where we said there wasn’t any.”
Ryanair, which has bitter memories of having to cancel 10,000 flights during last year’s eruptions at the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, wasn’t alone in suffering the consequences of yesterday’s disruptions.
Aer Lingus was forced to cancel 20 flights and ground 500 flights across Europe.
The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) did not have to close Irish airspace but if eruptions continue, forecasted winds could bring the ash cloud over Ireland on Friday.
The IAA said it was monitoring the situation, stating: “Passengers planning to travel by air over the coming days are advised to regularly check their airline websites and the IAA website in advance of going to the airport.”
The British Met Office said as well as satellite data confirming the presence of the ash cloud, numerous pilots had reported encountering ash and finding deposits of it on their aircraft in the hours before the airspace closure notice.
Grimsvotn began erupting on Saturday, leading to fears of a repeat of last year’s eruptions which continued for weeks, costing airlines all over Europe hundreds of millions of euro in lost business and reimbursement claims by passengers.
Michael O’Leary said the official response to ash clouds needed to be completely changed.
“We need to do what is done in Alaska and Indonesia where erupting volcanos are a regular occurrence. You create a 100 mile no-fly zone around the volcano and after that it’s a matter for the airlines to decide. We have confirmation from our aircraft manufacturers and engine manufacturers — without whose clearance we cannot fly — that even if there was a red zone over Scotland, we would be safe to fly through it.”
Brother and sister Pauline and Joe Gorman, from Glasgow, stranded at Dublin Airport after attending the Roger Waters concert in the O2. Picture: Gareth Chaney Collins
Icelandic farmers check on livestock amid the ash cloud from the Grimsvotn volcano. Picture: AP Photo
A: Grimsvotn is in the south-east of Iceland, about 550 miles from the coast of Scotland and 700 miles from Glasgow. It’s not a stereotypical cone- shaped or stratovolcano but rather an opening in the earth called a caldera volcano lying beneath glacial lakes that sit 5,700 feet above sea level. It erupts regularly, most recently in 1998 and 2004 although there were also significant tremors last year, but it hasn’t happened this explosively for 100 years.
A: Eyjafjallajokull is situated further south so Ireland was more directly in its firing line. It’s smaller and a stratovolcano, located within a mountain beneath an ice cap at a similar height to Grimsvotn. It has also had frequent eruptions but is not as active as Grimsvotn. It also produced a different kind of eruption, the combination of lava and melting ice creating a very fine dust-like ash that drifted far and wide and lingered in the air for a long time. Grimsvotn is throwing out larger lumps of rock and ash, which is hoped will not travel as far and will fall back to earth quicker.
A: The UK Met Office’s Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre uses satellite data to detect and track the movements of volcanic ash clouds. The use of infrared imagery means they can differentiate between ash and rain clouds. They can also tell how dense the clouds are and categorise them as high, medium and low — denoted on charts as red zone, grey zone and blue zone respectively.
A: The weather. If winds are coming from the north, they’ll carry any clouds hanging around or any material from fresh eruptions further towards us. How much they’ll carry and how far depends on the strength of the winds.
A: Wind-wise, Met Éireann are showing a southerly today, northerly tomorrow and a westerly/ south- westerly on Friday. The UK Met Office predict the cloud will clear Scotland today but they’re also showing charts predicting that it could move over Britain and Ireland on Friday, in high density over the north and east of Ireland and in low density over the midlands, west and south-east with only the south-west escaping. However, this assumes the volcano will keep erupting at its current intensity.
A: Visibility is the most obvious although some of the ash is so fine, it can’t be seen. The more insidious and dangerous problem is ash getting into the engine and other moving parts of the aircraft. It can coat the mechanics and, if temperatures are high enough, turn to glass in the same way sand exposed to heat turns molten and then solidifies as glass.
A: Not exactly — BMI flights managed to keep going to and from Scottish airports, to the consternation of other airlines who were ordered to stay put.
A: In Britain, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA); in Ireland the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA). Both make decisions in conjunction with the aforementioned UK Met Office’s Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC) in London which is part of the International Airways Volcano Watch (IAVW) system of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
A: They’re supposed to but they have their own interpretations of the available scientific data and individual discretion in decision-making. For example, any Irish airline wishing to fly through an area of high density ash can make a ‘safety case’ to the IAA to be exempt from the general grounding notice. A safety case has to include advice from the aircraft manufacturers and set out what measures the airline will take to minimise risks.
A: Ryanair is doing all in its power but so far, no go.
A: He’s erupting with as much ferocity as Grimsvotn itself. Undoubtedly he’s thinking of last year when almost 10,000 of his flights had to be cancelled in April and May, upsetting the travel plans of 1.45 million passengers and costing the airline an estimated €32m in claims.
A: Under European law (EC Regulation No. 261/2004), airline passengers whose flight is delayed or cancelled are entitled to a refund of their fare or an alternative flight to their destination. They are also entitled to food, refreshments and accommodation free of charge while they wait or to be reimbursed for their own expenditure on these items. The Commission for Aviation Regulation here has all the details on its website or on 1890 787787.
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