WHY the air craft have been grounded (in uk)

I was just trawling some sites for something interesting to read, and came accross this story, which is one of the storys that contributed to the aircraft groundings in uk today (and probably tommorow too) due to volcanic ash!

news.bbc.co.uk...
When volcanic ash stopped a Jumbo at 37,000ft
quote from story that made me laugh
"Good evening ladies and gentlemen. This is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are all doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress."

news.bbc.co.uk...

a nice little story that relates to current affairs!

(it also explains quite alot, and has a diagram!)

it also mentions "st elmos fire" ... something i had never heard of before and seems even more facinating than the volcano!

reply to post by boaby_phet


This is a St. Elmo's fire:

St. Elmo's fire (also St. Elmo's light) is an electrical weather phenomenon in which luminous plasma is created by a coronal discharge originating from a grounded object in an atmospheric electric field (such as those generated by thunderstorms or thunderstorms created by a volcanic explosion).

reply to post by ItsAgentScully


yup, as soon as i read about it in the story i though wtf and googled it!.

been looking for some pics but they seem hard to find!

reply to post by boaby_phet


I had no idea what it was either. I think i saw some pictures of it on a church steeple years ago, can't find it anymore though.

St Elmo's fire was also a movie from the eighties.. That's the first thing I think of when I hear that. God, I feel old...

This is St. Elmos Fire on a airplane windshild

FLICKER

..you may want to read that:
en.wikipedia.org...
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Imho, it is very hard to believe that what we were told is real reason of actual situation, btw, but it is not my business.

[edit on 15-4-2010 by potential_problem]