The European Aviation Crisis Coordination Cell (EACCC), which was set up one year ago after the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull, was activated on Saturday following the eruption of the Grimsvötn volcano in Iceland.
One year after ash from the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano grounded most aircraft in Europe for several days, ICAO’s European and North Atlantic Volcanic Ash Exercises Steering Group conducted Volcex 11/01, a two-day exercise designed to simulate the effects on air traffic control of the eruption of different Icelandic volcano.
In late April, scientists from Denmark’s University of Copenhagen and the University of Iceland in Reykjavik published the findings of an almost year-long study into last year’s eruption of the Eyjafjallajokul volcano.
A bold move by British Airways in April–the launching of 26 airplanes toward the UK while British airspace was closed–finally broke the European airspace logjam caused by volcanic ash clouds from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano.
While pilots need to be careful not to fly through heavy concentrations of volcanic ash from the Eyjafjallajökull Volcano in Iceland, the glass particle-laden ash clouds don’t have the same effect on acrylic windows as other volcanic eruptions. According to Bob Cupery, who founded Torrance, Calif.-based Aircraft Window Repairs 31 years ago, volcanic eruptions that are more gaseous pose a bigger problem for aircraft windows.