[muawiyah]

As much as the passengers complained I am sure that any of them who thought about it just a second realized someone was trying to keep them from getting hurt.

Those who didn't are definitely candidates for the Darwin Award!

[1010RD]

Nope, this simply proves that free market decision making is better. Let the airlines decide if it is safe to fly, give passengers the information and let each accept the consequences.

Alert level is orange, because it is always orange.

[Hulka]

“As much as the passengers complained I am sure that any of them who thought about it just a second realized someone was trying to keep them from getting hurt.”

Not exactly. Those of us that know aviation (over 20-yrs in the business as a fighter pilot), and having flown near ash clouds before, we knew from the start that this was a CYA over-reaction. Europe has been closing airspace based on mathematical predictions of where the ash might go, not real-world data, and this led to unnecessary stoppages.

Volcanic activity is not new. In the state of Alaska, for example, this has been a reality for many years and dealt with accordingly. The solution: Find out as much as possible about the ash cloud and reroute. . .don’t panic and don't over-react. Unfortunately, many people that have limited experience in aviation sound like the occasional airline traveler standing in the insane TSA “security” line: “Oh, isn't this wonderful. We should all be willing to fly nakked just to be safe.”

Europe should follow the US: The FAA’s primary method of dealing with volcanic ash is operator avoidance, since the geographical location of areas that may be affected by volcanic ash is weather-dependent, we manage air traffic when confronted with volcanic ash like any other major weather event. We don't willy-nilly close airspace.

The U.S. gathers information from various agencies and disseminates it to aviators and it is the operator that makes the decision to fly or not. If the operator chooses to fly, then FAA controllers will direct the operator around volcanic ash.

In the US, it is the airlines that supplement government volcano alerts by providing visual confirmation by pilots, who fly without passengers solely to determine the extent of the ash. We simply don't rely on computer models. Real-world exploration of the actual ash cloud is key. Then when you have real-world data, you put a safety margin around the affected area and fly around it if you can. If you can't, then you cancel the flight. Europe did not do this. They simply cancelled.

The ultimate goal should be: Close airspace only when singnificant ash is actually present, not where a computer model says there MIGHT be ash.