Story updated February 15, 9.30am
Reports of a potential repeat of last year’s volcanic ash crisis were based on ‘a misunderstanding’, it now appears – but the scare has sparked debate about the UK’s preparedness for future eruptions.
UK media including the Daily Mail and the Telegraph recently reported that geologists monitoring seismic activity around Bárdarbunga, Iceland’s second largest volcano, had warned there was “reason to worry” that an eruption was going to happen. Travel Weekly ran the story on Monday afternoon.
According to a story on Iceland Review Online, the Icelandic Meteorological Office issued the following statement in response:
“Presently, there are no signs of an imminent volcanic eruption in Iceland. The Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) did not issue a warning last weekend in connection with increased seismicity beneath the Vatnajökull ice-cap. If signs of an eruption were apparent, IMO would issue a warning immediately.”
Fears of a new eruption seem to have beeen based “on a misunderstanding of a TV interview with a specialist at the Icelandic Met Office earlier this week,” the story added.
Last year the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano caused the closure of British and European airspace on three separate occasions grounding flights and causing multi-million pound losses for airlines and tour operators.
The new scare raised fears that a fresh eruption could plunge the industry into the same situation.
Francesa Ecsery, Cheapflights global sales director, said: “My concern is we have not done our homework on volcanic ash.
“Last year it closed down the airspace, but that can’t possibly be the answer. I’m worried we have not used the time properly between last year and now to examine this and the next time this happens we are going to have an issue.”
Ecsery said the UK should have experts in part of the world that regularly have to cope with this problem to devise a plan that will allow UK airspace to remain open in the event of another eruption sending ash towards Britain.
A spokesperson for the CAA, the safety body that oversees air transport, claimed progress has been made since last year’s eruption, saying: “Aviation is in a better place to respond to volcanic ash than in April last year. In the last 6 months a huge amount of work has been done to improve our ability to safely mitigate disruption from ash.
“Of course there is still more work to be done with the international aviation industry to further improve the situation. However, in the exceptional circumstance that there is an eruption, with dense ash and the weather is unfavourable, while we will all try to reduce disruption, we will put safety first. “
The British government faced criticism from some in the airline industry over the way it handled last year’s ash crisis with some saying it was an over-reaction. But the CAA insisted it was acting in the best interests of air passengers.
“Aviation is in a better place to respond to volcanic ash than in April last year. In the last six months a huge amount of work has been done to improve our ability to safely mitigate disruption from ash,” a CAA spokesperson said.
“Of course there is still more work to be done with the international aviation industry to further improve the situation. However, in the exceptional circumstance that there is an eruption, with dense ash and the weather is unfavourable, while we will all try to reduce disruption, we will put safety first. “
The last recorded eruption of Bárdarbunga was in 1910, although this was minor in comparison to the last major eruption in 1477. The volcano is responsible for the largest lava flow on the planet in the last 10,000 years.