The executives of the airline Ryanair reject statements made in a study by Icelandic and Danish scientists that it had been justifiable to impose an aviation ban when the glacier/volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted last year.
The eruption in Eyjafjallajökull. Photo by Bjarni Brynjólfsson.
According to the study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, concerns for air transport were “well grounded,” as stated on Air & Business Travel News.
The study said: “The particles of explosive ash that reached Europe in the jet stream were especially sharp and abrasive over their entire size range, from submillimeter to tens of nanometers.”
As the “unusually fine-grained ash particles” were “very sharp and hard,” aircraft were at risk of abrasion to their windows and body, and melting in jet engines.
Ryanair’s Head of Communications Stephen McNamara called these statements “nonsensical,” claiming there had been “no evidence of volcanic ash, but lots of evidence of scientific bungling and regulatory mismanagement.”
“This report was clearly designed to cover the embarrassment of these bungling scientists and the regulators who completely cocked up and mismanaged the closure of much of Europe’s airspace during April and May 2010 when there was no threat to air safety anywhere except over Iceland,” he added.
Click here to read more about the study.
