One of the world’s biggest airlines claimed yesterday that the volcanic ash cloud which caused travel chaos for thousands in the north and north east was a myth – and branded aviation bosses “bungling bureaucrats”.
Despite people across the Highlands waking to find a covering of dust on their cars yesterday, Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary said there was no ash over Aberdeen and Inverness. The airline launched a bitter attack on the Civil Aviation Authority and the Met Office after a test flight at 7am, saying it was perfectly safe to fly.
Mr Bisignani also said passengers were being hit by “the patchwork of inconsistent state decisions on airspace management”
Another senior aviation source also questioned how the latest ash crisis was being handled, even though the chaos was not on the scale which followed the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull.
”`You have to question what is the greater priority, a long-term commitment to a project in Africa or the imperative of getting a plane up into the cloud,” said an aviation industry source.
“Even though the Saharan work is worthwhile, they should be scrambling that for the time being and that plane should be heading towards Scottish air space and not North Africa.”
A Department for Transport spokesman sought to play down the importance of the inspection aircraft.
“The UK is taking detailed readings to monitor the ash cloud from a number of different instruments including radar and lidar sites, improved satellite data and weather balloons. Test aircraft only provide a snapshot in a localised area, whilst the Met Office model looks at the bigger picture, and the accuracy of this model is considered to be high.
“However, as part of our ongoing efforts to reduce the impact of the ash cloud, we are looking to make a specialised test aircraft in the future.”
A five day Met Office forecast suggests that the whole of Britain could be in the “red zone” on Saturday with dense ash at heights of above 35,000 feet.
The accuracy of the forecast depends on both the wind direction and how active the volcano – which appears to be subsiding – remains over the next 48 hours.
Should the Met Office forecast prove accurate, there is likely to be disruption with airlines having to re-route to avoid flying through the high density ash, although widespread cancellations are currently not expected.
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