Volcanic eruption disrupts NZ flights

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Flights were disrupted and airlines placed on alert after an undersea volcano erupted off the coast of Tonga and shot clouds of smoke, steam and ash thousands of metres into the sky.

Both Airways New Zealand which manages air traffic and MetService have issued a warning to aircraft flying in the area. New Zealand flights were forced to fly around or over the ash and smoke, which reached up to 15,000 metres, an Airways NZ spokeswoman said.

Volcanic ash cannot be detected by planes' weather radar but can cause multiple engine failure. In 1990, a KLM Boeing 747 lost all four engines while flying through a volcanic ash cloud in Alaska.

The Tongan volcano, which is believed to have erupted on Monday, spewed columns of ash from the sea about 10km from the southwest coast off the main island of Tongatapu, where up to 36 undersea volcanoes are clustered, said Tonga's geological service head, Keleti Mafi.

"It's a very significant eruption, on quite a large scale."

Trade winds were blowing gas and steam away from the island so there was no danger to residents.

- AAP and staff reporter

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asgspifs   #1   12:08 pm Mar 23 2009

This is some pretty poor reporting and fact checking - a testament to the need for better science education. 1) 15,000 meters is about 50,000 feet - higher than any commercial aircraft can fly. This is where a few specialized military aircraft can go. As soon as you read a report that says volcanic ash "reached up to 15,000 metres" an alarm should go off in your head that says, "that can't be right. They must mean 15,000 FEET. That makes more sense." So instead of just repeating what you read in another report, think about it.

2) Volcanic ash CAN be detected by an aircraft radar system, but they are just hard to differentiate from clouds.

3) It was in 1989, not 1990, that a KLM 747 flew through an ash cloud from an Alaskan volcano and lost all 4 engines. A small detail, but not that hard to fact check!

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