The unprecedented disruption of air traffic over Europe in 2010 caused by the ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajoekull calls for development and adoption of an effective safety risk management strategy for volcanic ash. Such strategy should benefit from adequate information on the extent of actual contamination within the area defined as “affected airspace” and on the likely effects on aircraft encountering specific levels of contamination within it.
This article does not consider the various hazards to aircraft in flight near volcanic eruptions, notably:
The various hazards to aircraft in flight near to the ash plume formed overhead explosive volcanic eruptions;
Flight crew recognition of and response to inadvertent penetration of volcanic ash;
The timely detection of new volcanic eruptions;
The consequences of concentrated ash fall on aviation installations on the ground.
It is instead concerned purely with the operational safety implications of flight in significant concentrations of volcanic ash, which may exist in downstream ash clouds, and with the determination of the threshold for and exposure to any such hazard.