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Volcanic Ash & Aviation Safety
Editor's Note: Visitors reviewing the SKYbrary guidance to pilots and controllers concerning the effects of volcanic ash as a result of airspace closures may also wish to view the CFMU Network Operations Portal (NOP) which contains all the current ATCFM information affecting Europe. Current Volcanic Ash Advisories for Europe are available from the London Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre.
Volcanic Ash is defined as very small solid particles ejected from a volcano during an eruption which have intermediate axes measuring 2 mm or less (US Geological Survey) and "fine ash" is further defined by the same source as particles smaller than 1/16 (0.0625) mm across.
During a volcanic eruption, huge quantities of material can be ejected into the atmosphere, reaching great height and remaining a threat to aviation for several months. Volcanic ash accumulates at higher altitudes in clouds which then drift with the wind. The ash does not show up on aircraft weather radar or ATC radars because of the small size of the particles. Ash particles carry electrical charges and, within a cloud of volcanic ash, this can give rise to Thunder and Lightning in the area immediately overhead the eruption.
At night, St Elmo's Fire, created when charged ash particles hit the aircraft, may be the first circumstantial indication to a flight crew that they are flying into dense volcanic ash. Other indications might be a sulphurous smell and dust within the cabin.
Volcanic Ash encounter can result in engine damage and malfunction:
- Engine Malfunction. The principal risk to continued safe flight, arising from flight through high concentrations of volcanic ash, is the melting within the engine of ash particles, which are predominantly composed of silicates with a melting point of 1100°C2,012 °F
. This melting point is considerably less than the core operating temperature of high by pass turbine engines which, at normal thrust settings, is at least 1400°C2,552 °F
; there will be a trend for the core temperature to increase as engine design focuses on improved specific fuel consumption. Ingested silicate ash melts in the hot section of the engine and then fuses onto the high pressure turbine blades and guide vanes. This drastically reduces the throat area and both static burner and compressor discharge pressures rapidly increase and cause engine surge. Transient and possibly terminal loss of thrust can occur in the most severe cases with a successful engine re-start only possible if clear air can be regained. If present at sufficient densities, ash particles can also contribute to engine malfunction by simple deposition. In either case, the added debris clogs up the engine airflow and is likely to initially lead to engine surging and ultimately to a Flame Out. Reducing the thrust setting quickly to idle may lower the core temperature enough to prevent silicates melting.
- Long Term Engine Damage. The abrasive effect of volcanic ash particle impact can cause surface roughness inside turbine engines which, whilst it will not affect their continued normal operation, will result in a reduced specific fuel consumption. It is impossible to repair such damage, so the life of an affected engine could be considerably reduced.
- External Surface Corrosion. Ash can cause significant damage to the exposed surface of the aircraft skin and to the outer ply of windscreens. If the ash encounter is severe, the latter may become sufficiently abraded to be difficult to see through.
British Airways Flight 9 (24 June 1982)
Cruising at FL370, the aircraft, a Boeing 747-200, British Airways Flight 9, en-route at night from Kuala Lumpur to Perth, entered a dense cloud of volcanic ash in the vicinity of a volcanic eruption from Mount Galunggung. The crew had noticed St Elmo's fire and an acrid smell and dust had entered the cabin through the air conditioning system. All four engines failed and the aircraft started to descend. Once clear of the ash cloud, the crew managed to restart the engines in succession but because of continued malfunction of one of them, it was shut down and an en route diversion was made to Jakarta on 3 engines.
- Avoidance. Since the above event, ICAO has implemented a system of Nine Volcanic Ash Advisory Centres (VAAC) which are tasked with issuing information on the location and flight level of volcanic ash clouds through SIGMET charts and in Volcanic Ash Advisory messages. However, this information rarely includes any information on particle size or on cloud density and so the real degree and extent of the hazard can be difficult to determine.
- Escape. Inadvertent penetration of significant volcanic ash concentrations from new explosive eruptions, which have not yet been detected and notified, can still occur and is most likely at night. Such encounters can be recognised as such and an escape manoeuvre performed taking into account terrain circumstances - see Volcanic Ash: Guidance for Flight Crews.
15 April 2010
On 15 April 2010, large sections of airspace over Northern Europe began to be affected by a large area of fine volcanic ash drifting south east from an erupting volcano in Iceland. The suspension of acceptance of IFR Flight Plans for flights in any part of the affected airspace because of the perceived risk effectively shut down the commercial air transport system over a wide area.
Of interest is the article published in the Physics and Chemistry of the Earth journal "On visibility of volcanic ash and mineral dust from the pilot's perspective in flight", published in April 2012.
Accidents & Incidents involving Volcanic Ash
- B742, en-route, Mount Galunggung Indonesia, 1982 (On 24 June 1982, a British Airways Boeing 747-200 lost power on all four engines while flying at night at FL370 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Perth. During the ensuing sixteen minutes, the aircraft descended without power from FL370 to FL120, at which point the flight crew were able to successfully restart engines one, two and four after which an en route diversion was made to Jakarta.)
- B744, en-route, Alaska USA, 1989 (On 15th December 1989, a KLM Boeing 747 encountered a Volcanic Ash cloud over Alaska, USA. the ingestion of ash led to compressor stall of all engines; the engines were subsequently relighted successfully and the aircraft landed safely.)
Airports near areas where Volcanic activity occurs
- Akureyri Airport
- El Hiero Airport
- Fuerteventura Airport
- Jakarta/Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport
- Jakarta/Soekarno-Hatta International Airport
- Keflavík International Airport
- Kualanamu International Airport
- La Palma Airport
- Palermo/Punta Raisi Airport
- Reykjavik Airport
- Tenerife Sur/Reina Sofia
The following map shows the aerodromes where Volcanic Ash might occur across the world which are listed on SKYbrary:
- Contingency Planning: Volcanic Ash
- Managing Volcanic Ash Risk to the Safety of Flights
- Volcanic Ash Advisory
- Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC)
- Volcanic Ash: Guidance for Controllers
- Volcanic Ash: Guidance for Flight Crews
- ICAO Doc 9974:"Flight Safety and Volcanic Ash" - First Edition 2012
- ICAO Handbook for International Airways Volcano Watch. This handbook is no longer subject to ICAO revision except for 'Part 5 - Contacts' for which they have set up a specific "latest version"
- ICAO EUR Doc 019, NAT Doc 006 Part II: "Volcanic Ash Contingency Plan", July 2016
- ICAO NAT OPS Bulletin - Effective: 16 May 2010 at 0001 UTC, recommended interim enhanced procedures to be implemented by States in the event of a volcanic eruption
- Heeding Eyjafjallajökull's lessons, an article from ICAO Journal, issue 1/2013
- VAAC Map of Areas of Responsibility 2017
Flight Safety Foundation
- Flight Safety Foundation, Flight Safety Digest, May 1993, “Volcanic Hazards and Aviation Safety: Lessons of the Past Decade”, Casadevall.
US Geological Survey
- Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Volcanic Ash & Aviation Safety; Seattle, 1991. The wealth of scientific knowledge in these proceedings informed subsequent contingency planning policy and operational recommendations.
- "The 1991 Pinatubo Eruptions and Their Effects on Aircraft Operations": Thomas J Casadevall and others.
- NASA/TM-2003-212030: Engine Damage to a NASA DC-8-72 Airplane From a High-Altitude Encounter With a Diffuse Volcanic Ash Cloud
- The thermal stability of Eyjafjallajökull ash versus turbine ingestion test sands Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, 2014 Kueppers et al.