Some years ago, a 747 Jumbo jet was flown into a volcanic cloud - NOT DUST PARTICLES. The cloud was, as you can imagine, dense. As a result the four engines shut down. The plane headed earthwards. It was just before the plane was hit earth that the pilot was able to restart the engines. It is understood that based on this the decision was made to ground everyone. The comment about bad risk assessment, in my opinion, is quite correct. I am a safety advisor and one of tasks is to risk assess. It is not an exact science. The decisions taken are, of course, over reaction, as with many other instances. I have seen it and experienced the over reaction by others. There is no common sense approach any more and as such many people are left out of pocket because of stupid individuals who thick that they can control the universe by saying they are Safety Advisors and as such the world sits on their decision. Pathetic little people. These decisions have damaged my reputation and now, makes my life very difficult. Classic example, in england, of this stupidity, was when company and individuals stated that Step Ladders were banned. I ask you. And they blamed the Safety Authoritive body for this when no such thing was said. These people had not followed guidance and it was easier to ban something and blame someone else. It is pathetic and over the top. Anyone want a Safety Advisor who has a common sense approach to situations, I am sure RT will forward you my contact outlining all the necessary details quoting Health and Safety

All this hysteria is based on one incident that happened in 1982 when BA flight 9 flow directly into a cloud of volcanic ash from mount galunggung in indonesia. That was 28 years ago and there was no other recorded event as far as i know. Since then the engines are more powerful and no one is planing on flying directly into the cloud. I was meant to travel out of Manchester airport this morning. what gets me is the total lack of support for the passengers.The whole of yesterday was on the phone trying to find out if my flight will go after the planned reopening of Manchester airport after 9am. The certain dutch air company has an automated message on all its line saying they cant help me with anything and referring me to their web page that does not work. the travel agent I used has disconnected their phones and the airport keeps moving their time to reopen with no regards to the passengers that have to make their way there just to find out its closed again. People are stuck all across the world in poor conditions and some have to pay large amounts to get back by road and sea. In the long run the air companies will get cash compensations from their respective governments, but how about the people? I am lucky since all it has cost me is my time and phone bill.