Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Air travel

A volcano explodes and European governments shut down the skies for a few days.

They did a good job. Government should be thinking of our safety in the skies before thinking about how to prevent airlines from losing $1.7 billion. Volcanic ash is dangerous stuff, not to take lightly. Some people did, like this guy:

"Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary called the shutdown imposed by European governments excessive. 'It might have made sense to ground flights for a day or two. That's understandable. But there should have been a much faster response by the governments, the transport ministers and the regulators,' he told The Associated Press"

Maybe he's right. But if a few birds can force a jet to "land" in the Hudson River, what could a small plume of ash do to dozens of planes thousands of feet in the air? Ryanair and co. don't want to know.

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