Eyjafjallajokull volcano

ziggy12345 · Post by **ziggy12345** » 18 Apr 2010, 19:54

Cabin crew?

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 18 Apr 2010, 20:27

I stopped serious several-times-a week flying about 7 years ago.

I then realised that I had become ADDICTED to commercial air travel ... it took about 3 months for the 'call' of the check-in desk to wear off.

Now I fly maybe twice a year ... a royal pain.

RogueMale · Post by **RogueMale** » 18 Apr 2010, 20:57

adam2 wrote:A quick look around several supermarkets shows a shortage of strawberries, peaches, and plums, which I presume are air freighted.

All out of season. All can be grown in the UK, two of them easily. Since this air-freighting nonsense started, many people are unaware of when fruit are in season (free if you know where to look).

adam2 wrote:Several neighbours of African descent have expressed concern over supplies of yams which are allegedly flown into the UK from Ghana.
I see no shortage, and also suspect that these root vegetables are not perishable and are therfore probably imported by ship.

Nowadays they come by ship, but in the early 1990s they were air-freighted from Ghana: http://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/a ... h_0222.pdf. Insane if you ask me, as they too can be grown in the UK (http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_6216813_grow- ... mates.html).

I saw one propeller driven light aircraft today.

And if Robert Peston is correct in this article http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters ... nment.html, expect airlines to come to the taxpayer, begging bowl in hand. I like this bit:

"Right now, the biggest impact for business is the sheer number of executives who are stuck abroad, unable to come home.

"The real danger for them is that we'll discover we don't really need them," one business leader joked."

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 18 Apr 2010, 22:10

From Peston article:

"There are six active volcanoes in the world" said an airline executive. "We need to understand why the Icelandic eruption is seen by the authorities to be so much more dangerous than others".

Answer: because the other five aren't spewing massive ash clouds into the atmosphere?

Kīlauea, for example, has been erupting on Hawaii continuously since 1983. It is a totally different sort of volcano.

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 18 Apr 2010, 22:20

RogueMale wrote:expect airlines to come to the taxpayer, begging bowl in hand. I like this bit:

"Right now, the biggest impact for business is the sheer number of executives who are stuck abroad, unable to come home.

"The real danger for them is that we'll discover we don't really need them," one business leader joked."

Pilots calling for a banking style rescue has just been mentioned on the BBC news!

They were also talking about doctors stuck abroad, with surgery and clinics being cancelled, and a critically ill child waiting for bone marrow to be flown in.

In the long run this could be great news, as long as the message about resilience is taken on board, but it is tough on ordinary people at the moment.

I haven't heard anyone comment on why 90 odd important Poles were travelling on the same plane. They do crash or get hijacked sometimes.

I think people have forgotten that things humans create aren't infallible, and we shouldn't be putting so many eggs in one basket.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 18 Apr 2010, 22:27

JohnB wrote: I haven't heard anyone comment on why 90 odd important Poles were travelling on the same plane. They do crash or get hijacked sometimes.

I think people have forgotten that things humans create aren't infallible, and we shouldn't be putting so many eggs in one basket.

Theat begs a few questions. It's ok to put 90 people into one aircraft so long as they are not important people then? So some people are more important than others? To whom?

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 18 Apr 2010, 22:30

JohnB wrote:
I think people have forgotten that things humans create aren't infallible, and we shouldn't be putting so many eggs in one basket.

We have become totally dependent on modern technology. Can you imagine what would happen if all the world's computer systems went wrong? We managed to survive for 200,000 years without them, but 30-40 years after we first started using them and our civilisation would collapse overnight if they were removed.

We have also bred a generation of children who can't do long multiplication without a calculator.

And can you imagine a world without mobile phones???

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 18 Apr 2010, 22:33

I hardly ever use my mobile phone and if I didn't have a computer I'd probably spend more time gardening producing an even bigger surplus of fruit and veg than I do already.

Long multiplication? Oh yes, use it every day, can't live without it

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 18 Apr 2010, 23:32

biffvernon wrote:Theat begs a few questions. It's ok to put 90 people into one aircraft so long as they are not important people then? So some people are more important than others? To whom?

If the top 90 posters on PowerSwitch were all in one place, and something happened to them, there would be no more PowerSwitch. Or all the management of a company, or a football team. Most of the time the occupants of a plane come from all over the place, so if it crashes it doesn't have a major effect on the country, although there would obviously be lots of personal tragedies.

Of course I'd make an exception for *ankers, politicians and a few others!

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 19 Apr 2010, 00:03

Let us not forget a certain Chinook crash which took out the entire senior NI intelligence community.

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 19 Apr 2010, 00:10

I love this...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8628727.stm

EU: Air ash chaos 'not sustainable'

So not sending 17000 flights in, out and around Europe is not sustainable?

WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

revdode · Post by **revdode** » 19 Apr 2010, 07:48

I should be on vacation this week back in the UK but our flights were cancelled, shit happens as they say.
Interestingly back at work I can start to feel the pain in the business, most of our components are from China or the far east. Some from the other side of Europe.
Our usual "get out of jail" logistics solution is closed, no air freight and we start to see that making products with low volume but high differentiation in Europe from components sourced from China is not so easy.
The mad rush around product development also now needs to slow down as we can no longer hurry to get samples from Chinese suppliers in five days. To be honest from where I'm sitting slowing down and focussing more on getting things right first time rather than assuming you can solve any problems in a few weeks at the end of a project sounds like a positive thing.
Our logistics solution for some small high value items is now also challenged, these are the core of our product but we had planned to air freight them in once a fortnight or possibly weekly. Now this doesn't look like such a good idea.
It's all a perfect example of how we don't tackle issues of sustainability and resilience until the wolf is through the door and panting in our faces.

2 As and a B · Post by **2 As and a B** » 19 Apr 2010, 08:00

UndercoverElephant wrote:
JohnB wrote:
I think people have forgotten that things humans create aren't infallible, and we shouldn't be putting so many eggs in one basket.
We have become totally dependent on modern technology. Can you imagine what would happen if all the world's computer systems went wrong? We managed to survive for 200,000 years without them, but 30-40 years after we first started using them and our civilisation would collapse overnight if they were removed.

We have also bred a generation of children who can't do long multiplication without a calculator.

And can you imagine a world without mobile phones???

Machines destroy knowledge.

2 As and a B · Post by **2 As and a B** » 19 Apr 2010, 08:03

biffvernon wrote:
JohnB wrote: I haven't heard anyone comment on why 90 odd important Poles were travelling on the same plane. They do crash or get hijacked sometimes.

I think people have forgotten that things humans create aren't infallible, and we shouldn't be putting so many eggs in one basket.
Theat begs a few questions. It's ok to put 90 people into one aircraft so long as they are not important people then? So some people are more important than others? To whom?

"Important"

1. Strongly affecting the course of events or the nature of things; significant.

2. Having or suggesting a consciousness of high position or authority; authoritative.

Does that answer your questions?

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 19 Apr 2010, 08:23

Our logistics solution for some small high value items is now also challenged, these are the core of our product but we had planned to air freight them in once a fortnight or possibly weekly. Now this doesn't look like such a good idea.

Similar issues here.

I am waiting for small high value items to reach me from the USA.

I supply many of these to customers who fly into the UK.

Ho humm. Supplies gone. Customers gone.