Slashdot Mirror
EU Conducts Test Flights To Assess Impact of Volcanic Ash On Aircraft
chrb writes "As we discussed on Friday, the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland has led to flights being canceled across the EU. With travel chaos ensuing and the airlines losing an estimated $200 million per day, EU authorities are coming under increasing pressure to re-open the airways. Test flights conducted on Saturday were apparently successful, with no problems encountered during flight. Following the test flights, Peter Hartman, CEO of KLM, said, 'We hope to receive permission as soon as possible after that to start up our operation and to transport our passengers to their destinations.' Evidence possibly opposing this move comes from the Finnish Defense Forces, which released photos and a statement after F-18 Hornets flew through the ash cloud, saying, 'Based on the pictures, it was discovered that even short flights in ash dust may cause significant damage to an airplane's engine.' Is it safe to resume flights so soon, or should planes remain grounded until the ash cloud has dissipated?"
That's a big hurken video there. You guys must have .... high speed Internet. Sigh. *9&(*7re NO CARRIER
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
It's quite fast and cheap here, and we have very good coverage (: I think it comes down to governmental pushes and demanding consumers (e.g. there used to be "5 GB a month" deals, but they disappeared quickly because deals with no caps are just as cheap), but I really have no idea why we're well off. My girlfriend is from Portugal, and the offers there are really bad in comparison, despite having twice the population and a much smaller country.
Long winter = country of nerds, perhaps? ;)
And now we see just how much of a joke the state-subsidized airlines are*. After having been bailed-out over and over again, not a single one of them seems to have evolved the capability to deal with a major disruption such as this. They want to stick with their outdated business model of funneling people through hubs, flying planes all in a row in little highways-in-the-sky, and being completely inflexible with regards to cancellations and re-routes. 24 hours ago I was on the beach in Dubai, and would have gladly accepted a few days worth of hotel rooms in exchange for a later flight. It wasn't even offered. Meanwhile, a colleague is paying an extra $3000 to fly around the world the wrong way because he absolutely needs to be back ASAP. Of course there was no feasible way to give him my seat. Before take-off, the pilot sounded like he was about to break out in tears as he explained that we would have to (gasp) fly a slightly different route than expected in order to avoid the ash cloud. And right now, since my flight was delayed by an hour and I spent an hour waiting in line at customs and going through security screenings, I'm booked on at least three flights that I won't be on, and anyone who might need those seats will likely be waiting on stand-by, sleeping in an uncomfortable airport chair before they are offered. I just got offered the chance to wait on stand-by for two days because all the flights are completely booked. And I'm no longer anywhere near Europe. They have no idea where my bags are, and can't manage to re-route them even within the next week. I said 'fuck it', canceled two flights, and am now awaiting a direct flight on Southwest, because they are apparently the only competent airline capable of getting me where I want to go within any kind of reasonable timeframe. And the price was completely reasonable as well.
Oh, and if you think any of this is a decent trade-off in the name of security, think again. I very nearly (accidentally) made it onto the plane with enough suntan lotion to blow a decent-sized hole in almost any fuselage. Not that that would have been necessary, of course, since a swift kick on any cockpit door will still give a terrorist all the access they need to crash a plane. And meanwhile I get to sit here looking like an idiot who hasn't shaven in two days, since safety razors are banned. I expect to see Federales walking around airports with machine-guns any day now, giving dirty looks to poor-looking travelers, as America's implementation of socialist-banana-republic-esque security theater reaches completion.
*This means American, United, Continental, US Airways, TWA, all the little third-world airlines, and probably at least a few others.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"