Hammond agrees new guidelines following Grimsvotn alarm
Tuesday, 26 May, 2011
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New rules on aircraft flying near ash clouds are to be introduced to avoid air travel chaos.
As it emerges that the ash from the Grimsvotn Icelandic volcano was much thinner than anticipated and both British Airways and Ryanair test flights found little evidence of it at 30,000 feet, transport secretary Philip Hammond has agreed an overhaul of guidelines.
Now aircraft will be allowed to fly below thick concentrations of ash cloud.
Thousands of UK passengers feared their bank holiday weekend plans would be brought into chaos after predictions that the ash cloud that brought air travel to a standstill over Scotland on Tuesday and Germany on Wednesday would cover all of the UK on Friday. Some 1600 flights have been affected by the Grimsvotn eruption.
Now latest forecasts show that the ash due to arrive over the UK is much thinner than anticipated. Yesterday Icelandic meteorologists said that Grimsvotn was now only blowing out steam.
At the moment, planes are not allowed to fly beneath ash clouds but the new rules will see planes altering their flight paths and taking longer to make a full ascent to 30,000 if an ash cloud is present.
An ash cloud will still see some services cancelled – because there won’t be enough air space for all flights to alter their trajectory – but substantially more flights would be able to take off under this new ruling.
The new guidelines will also see the Met Office and the CAA sharing their information more readily to establish the best intelligence possible.
by Dinah Hatch
Dinah
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