The biggest news, today, was the “clash” between the air industry and European authorities. Many airlines and associations representing their interests (also commercial, of course) are criticizing the restrictions imposed to air traffic throughout Europe, considering them unnecessary. Airlines that have conducted private test flights say that all their planes showed no noticeable damage after flying through the ash.
But scientists working for independent bodies insist that authorities are not being over-cautious. In the morning, the UK Met Office’s test flight confirmed dangerous levels of ash that could bring a jet plane to a halt. This means, substantially, that the biggest difficulty that authorities are facing is figuring out a way of having a reliable map of the ash cloud. Even if 80% of an air space is safe, planes could find themselves, all of a sudden, into a “sack” where ashes are more dangerous.
While some supposedly important sources are reporting that the intensity of the volcano is decreasing, there is actually no scientific fundament to such reports. Seismic activity was once again high in the morning, according to the Icelandic Met Office, and even if the volcano should stop spitting out ashes in the sky, there are still chances of new eruptions. Meanwhile, I found some nice time-lapse videos that should give you an idea of the activity of the volcano. These videos are put together using images from the webcams pointed to the volcano by vodafone.is and mila.is.
Video posted by YouTube user snowhare:
Video posted by YouTube user braudrist76:
Webcam links:
Vodafone.is
Mila.is
