Mother Nature has sure thrown a lot of challenges at global travelers in the last six months. Major winter storms along the U.S. eastern seaboard and in Northern Europe in December wreaked havoc for holiday travelers by air, rail or roadways, and the “fun” continued into January and February. In addition to snow and ice, major wind storms and epic flooding on both sides of the pond throughout the winter and early spring not only made a mess of flight schedules but also caused millions of dollars in damage to infrastructure and personal property. Just when one could hope that the worst might be behind us as the days warm and lengthen into spring (although the annual thunderstorms and tornado warnings can not be discounted), a new challenge has reared its ugly head: volcanic eruptions.

The eruption of an Icelandic volcano this past week has sent clouds of ash drifting toward Northern Europe. Estimates are that nearly half of all scheduled flights in and out of the continent were cancelled over the last few days, and while the hope is that by the end of the weekend the ash will have largely dissipated, there are no guarantees that the volcano will not let loose again nor any way to predict when it could do so or how much ash it may emit. The flight cancellations and closing of major airports caused several finance ministers and officials to miss the start of a European Union finance meeting in Madrid, and there is concern that the arrival of world leaders for the state funeral of Polish president Lech Kaczynski and his wife on Sunday might also be delayed. Daily losses in the millions of dollars are predicted for large carriers such as British Airways and Lufthansa, and stock prices for these and other companies have seen a slight drop in the last few days. Not surprisingly, though, there has a been a marked increase in train travel throughout Europe over the same period; people and business continue to carry on as long as there is a will and a way.

Of course, this isn’t a “new” challenge at all, really. In just over a month, we in the Pacific Northwest will be commemorating the 30th anniversary of the catastrophic eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980. That event and several subsequent eruptions accompanied by massive ash clouds disrupted air traffic often. In addition, car engines became clogged with the tiny particles, and citizens throughout the region snapped up face masks to protect their respiratory systems.  The initial eruption also wiped out bridges along the major north-south interstate, I-5, and led to expensive silting-up of important shipping lanes in the Columbia River. Just last year, the Redoubt volcano near Anchorage, Alaska,  spewed ash into the atmosphere and caused nearly a week’s worth of flight cancellations with a ripple effect that spread down the West Coast. A similar eruption in 1989 caused all of a KLM flight’s engines to quit, with the plane descending some 14,000 feet before the pilot was able to restart the engines and make an emergency landing.

The eruption of Mt. Galunggung in Indonesia in 1982 led to similar engine failures in at least three different jumbo jets. In each case, after the passengers and crew suffered through the nightmare of gliding for several minutes while losing altitude, the engines were restarted once the ash cloud had been cleared and enough of the clogging silica in them had  fallen away. Incidents such as those have led air traffic controllers to have a great deal of respect for the danger that volcanic ash clouds, not generally visible on weather radar systems, can present. As bothersome as cancelled flights and closed airspace can be, they are preferable to the disastrous consequences that could be suffered if planes continued to fly in those conditions.

— Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader