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WorldWeird: A little trouble at the airport

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    • CommentAuthorroadscum
    • CommentTimeApr 16th 2010 edited
     (8063.1)
    Air traffic across much of northern Europe has ground to a halt. A volcanic eruption at Eyjafjallajoekull in Iceland is throwing up a vast cloud of engine clogging ash which is drifting south and east across northern Europe. All but a very few local flights have been grounded for safety reasons. One BBC report says the disruption could last for up to 48 hours but goes on to say that the last eruption was in 1821 and lasted, on and off, for two years.

    Of course, it may just be that Iceland bob has left his toast on...

    (Edited to correct a poor sense of direction - not that west, the other one)

    (and no Mr Ellis, i don't read it)
    • CommentAuthorDan Kelly
    • CommentTimeApr 16th 2010
     (8063.2)
    One wag on twitter over here mentioned that "we wanted our Cash back"

    Quite eerie having empty skies again, but looking forward to the next few sunsets. Once again the airports / travel industry seem to be astonishingly poorly prepared. It's quite simple there are no flights. Period. The law says you get a refund or a reroute. What is so hard about that?

    BBC almost made me quite angry - kept running a clip of a guy at an airport saying "it's not like the ash is where they fly, and can't they just fly under it it?". It's exactly like it's where they fly!
    • CommentAuthorFlabyo
    • CommentTimeApr 16th 2010
     (8063.3)
    You can't fly a jetliner lower anyway, they use far more fuel at lower altitude, not to mention all the noise pollution aspects.

    I'm reminded of something someone said during the snowpocalypse back at the start of the year, that the British have gotten so used to being able to just get up and go wherever they like whenever they like that they genuinely can't understand why sometimes you can't.

    Flying planes through ash clouds is bad. Although it does lead to probably my all time favourite airline captain quote:

    Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them under control. I trust you are not in too much distress.


    That, right there, is about as British a line as you'll ever see.
  4.  (8063.4)
    Nah it's not that, it's that the BBC trawl through vox populi for anything and then ALWAYS show the same type of clips. You know ... "BEWILDERED FRUSTRATION!!!..... EMOTIVE PLEA!!!" On the news thew other night they showed some woman walking down the street with a bunch of flowers after some kid got killed. The woman laid the flowers down and began walking away then the interviewer pounced and the bint started crying as if on cue. She wasn't related to or knew the family.

    I'm surprised that no one blamed Gordon Brown for this.
    •  
      CommentAuthorbjacques
    • CommentTimeApr 16th 2010
     (8063.5)
    I can't wait to see Charlie Brooker's take on this. So basically every airport within shouting distance of the North Atlantic and the Baltic coasts and a few that aren't are down, possibly for days. The economic implications are starting to sink in. Also, my mom is supposed to fly in from the States on Sunday. And Amanda Palmer is stranded in Iceland after a 45-minute layover before she was supposed to play Glasgow.

    Better start planning for a week of this at least. I don't want to think about any longer period just yet.
    • CommentAuthorVerissimus
    • CommentTimeApr 16th 2010
     (8063.6)
    An eruption lasting two years...now that would be something. According to wikipedia it also emitted toxic fluoride gas which can be dangerous to hu-mons.

    I thought it was only the Americans who had to be worried about Vulcanocalypse.
  7.  (8063.7)


    This may be of interest.
  8.  (8063.8)
    @Ginja- thanks for posting the video! That was really interesting.
    • CommentAuthorroadscum
    • CommentTimeApr 16th 2010
     (8063.9)
    @Versus: Vulcanocalypse? There have been a few...

    Link

    Linky

    Link

    This Iceland business is just a minor inconvenience. Might get some good sunsets though - pictures anyone?
    •  
      CommentAuthorbjacques
    • CommentTimeApr 17th 2010 edited
     (8063.10)
    Unlike, say, an earthquake in China or Haiti, this natural disaster hit the rich and middle class first. Air travel is the only practical way to move large numbers of people between continents. Nobody except retirees and honeymooners has the time to travel by ship, and for any train trip longer than 5 hours, we're used to flying.

    From Tallinn on the Baltic to Trebizond on the Black Sea, an ashen curtain has descended across Europe.

    Europe: Ashtray of the Gods. It's a divine judgment on the EU smoking ban.

    In better news, Amanda Palmer has made it to Glasgow.
    •  
      CommentAuthorcurb
    • CommentTimeApr 17th 2010
     (8063.11)
    The Daily Express carried the headline "BRITAIN CUT OFF FROM REST OF WORLD" the other day. You think they'd like that though - at least it helps keep foreigners out.
    •  
      CommentAuthorOsmosis
    • CommentTimeApr 17th 2010
     (8063.12)
    "Fog in Channel -- continent cut off" ? :)

    I wondered about this the other day, and then David McCandless just read my mind and went and did it:

    http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/planes-or-volcano/
    •  
      CommentAuthorcity creed
    • CommentTimeApr 17th 2010
     (8063.13)
    Dateline:
    0845, 15th April.
    Location:
    Edinburgh International Airport.
    Sky News report video-bombed by drunk Scot

    16th April: In a riveting piece of investigative journalism, Real Radio gets the guy on the phone.
    Seems that volcano may have inadvertently done Prague a massive favour.
    I sincerely hope "Anton McAvennie" - a perfect example of the kind of cretinous fuckwit that has made Scotland such a cultural superpower - DIAFF.
    Simply being himself is probably punishment enough, but just in case, are there any Czech-based angry Icelandic nationalists we can pass his mugshot on to?
    Annnnd I've just discovered the 7k member FB group devoted to him.
    /eyeknife
  14.  (8063.14)
    I'm currently on a diving trip in Cyprus and it looks like I'll be stuck in here for a bit longer, since the airspace of Finland is still closed down. I'm completely crestfallen and oh hey a couple of more days of diving! :P
  15.  (8063.15)
    To be fair I thought I hated Iceland too, but it turned out it was just that fucking horror of a human being Kerry Katona I hated. As for McAvennie he's just a being massive fud (I'll resist the obvious second dig at Katona.)
    •  
      CommentAuthorcity creed
    • CommentTimeApr 17th 2010
     (8063.16)
    Glad someone else sees it that way. I've been surrounded by people going "lighten up! it's funny!" to which I can only say "no, no it's not funny, he's just a twat." I will now modify twat to fud.

    Anyway, just saw this pic, supposed to be an aerial shot of the Ejya... Eyjafja.. of the big volcano.
    VOLCANO
    You can almost hear it going MUAHAHAHAHAAA
    from here
  17.  (8063.17)
    That pic looks like a scary face out to get us all. IMHO.

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