Travel Tips
Volcanic Ash Cloud Causes Air Travel Disruption – CBS Evening News
On the way to his radio show broadcast at the Hotel Portmeirion in Gwyneed, Wales, Peter found himself in the mist of an Icelandic volcano eruption and an aviation shutdown of historic proportions.
Luckily, Peter was able to report on his experiences from the road even as nearly-invisible volcanic dust kept most northern European airports closed.
Get a sense of what’s going on with some excerpts from his recent dispatches from London…
I just landed, barely, at Heathrow. The Icelandic volcano erupted with such force that the volcanic ash cloud is massive and heading to the UK. The result: an unprecedented halt of all air traffic into and out of London for the next six hours. But six hours really means a 36-hour disruption of flight schedules, large numbers of cancellations and misconnecting passengers.
Many of us remember the incident with the British Airways 747 flying over Indonesia. The plane never had an advance warning of an erupting volcano. It flew right into the ash. Not only did the coarse ash pit the cockpit windows so the pilots could no longer see, it also suffocated the plane’s engines, clogging all the critical instrumentation in the cockpit. The plane was flying over mountains and losing altitude.
Miraculously, the pilots were able to restart an engine at a precariously low altitude and then made an emergency landing. The passengers and crew exited the plane each covered in ash. Would you believe they hold annual reunions? THAT was a miracle landing. One engine. No visibility and no instrumentation. Amazing …
Watch Peter on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric to learn more about how the volcano’s eruption has affected travel:
Check out Peter’s previous segments on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric here.
By Adriana Padilla for PeterGreenberg.com.
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