(AP Photo/Arnar Thorisson/Helicopter.is)
By DAVID S. WHITE
Examiner.com
Up to half of scheduled European airline flights may return to the skies on Monday April 19, according to the latest comments from European Union officials.
The move comes after a number of airlines made test flights over the weekend and reported no safety, navigational or maintenance issues. Pressure to restore service has been mounting from cash-strapped airlines and stranded travelers. Some air travel industry groups questioned whether the near-total ban on flights was an overreaction.
Dense clouds of volcanic debris particles can sometimes cause aircraft engines to shut down or otherwise damage aircraft. But the recent test flights by Air France, British Airways, Lufthansa, Air Berlin, KLM and others has shown no safety issues. Most of the test aircraft avoided the altitudes where the ash particles are concentrated.
European air traffic controller (Eurocontrol photo)
A study by the US space agency NASA cautions that even minute concentrations of ash can cause damage to aircraft that, while not immediate, can result in premature component failures. The NASA report indicated that such damage is not necessarily evident after visual inspection of aircraft.
Although the volcanic cloud has slowly dispersed over much of central Europe, current weather patterns are doing little to move the ash out of commercial airspace.
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