Ash Cloud - Shut down Air Traffic - War Games - Computer Modeling - MET Office Controlling weather?

Source: SOTT.net

Note: As has been discussed with Hawks Cafe, Captain Sherlock and Abel Danger, the British Meteorological Office (MET) is operated by the British Ministry of Defense.

'Ashteria' is a Pretext to Shut Down International Air Travel

Andres Perezalonso & Niall Bradley
Sun, 16 May 2010

The pathocracy's desperate push for control is leading many otherwise intelligent people to believe they are seeing things that are not really there. On April 15 British airports were told by the British Civil Aviation Authority to begin grounding flights. At the same time, the Air Traffic Control Service for the UK (Nats) imposed restrictions on where planes could fly after the government's Meteorological Office [MET is under the Ministry of Defense] warned that ash could damage jet engines. By Friday 17 most routes in northern Europe were suspended and the shutdown had spread to TransAtlantic flights. All the while Europeans were subject to nauseating platitudes from politicians about passengers' safety being their "paramount concern." If jet engines could not withstand the "dangerous ash cloud" that had magically disguised itself as clear blue skies, why then was NATO playing multiple war games over European airspace during the lockdown? At least 60 aircraft (including fighter jets) from Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, USA, France, Norway, Netherlands, Poland, United Kingdom and Sweden took part in the Brilliant Mariner maritime exercise... while all commercial jets were grounded (because "safety was our paramount concern"). In fact, there may have been more military exercises taking place during this time.

If passenger safety was the primary consideration throughout this fiasco, why then has the airline industry and the relevant regulatory authorities repeatedly suppressed the findings of independent studies that sound the alarm over a very real danger facing passengers and crew alike during air travel?





The "paramount concern" that planes would start dropping like flies if they flew too close to the volcanic plume was buttressed by repeating ad nauseam the dramatic story of British Airways Flight 9 which in 1982 flew into a cloud of volcanic ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung, 180 km south east of Jakarta. This resulted in the malfunction of all its engines, although they happily restarted after the plane reemerged from the plume.

The plume from the Icelandic volcano - seen as a grey-brown streak drifting across the middle of the image - is visible from space. It was imaged by the Modis instruments on two Nasa satellites as it blew towards the Shetland Islands

We do not wish to argue against the wisdom of airplanes staying out of the way of volcanoes. But pray, will you have a look at this satellite image (left) of the actual plume and see that as impressive as it may be, it is a narrow strip that runs from Iceland in the direction of Denmark passing north of Scotland above the Shetland Islands. Hardly a "cloud of ash covering half of Europe" as the hysterical reporting suggested. Those red graphics of all-consuming ash clouds were entirely fictional products of computer models which 'predicted' the extent of the "ash cloud", depending on what data the authorities put into them. Garbage in, garbage out, as they say. Indeed, SOTT readers' reports from various locations on the continent and in the UK spoke only of blue and sunny skies (in keeping with the Universe's wonderful sense of humour to grant northern Europe a week of (relatively) warm, clear weather on the very week its airspace was shut down!). The Powers That Be would have us believe computer models instead of our own eyes. If you didn't see anything strange it was because the particles of ash had dispersed to the point of invisibility - just ask the computer! But common sense tells me that it is one thing to fly into the plume from a volcano and another to cruise through clear skies with an insignificant density of volcanic particles. Besides, were not computer models at least partly responsible for creating the fantasy of 'global warming' and the carbon trading scam?

Just when we were reaching that mad point where one begins to wonder if hysteria is rational and the lie is true after all, the airlines themselves stepped up in defense of stranded travelers (for obvious economic reasons) and urged the gatekeepers at Eurocontrol to reconsider the restrictions. In the words of a statement by ACI Europe - which represents major airports - and the Association of European Airlines:

"The eruption of the Icelandic volcano is not an unprecedented event and the procedures applied in other parts of the world for volcanic eruptions do not appear to require the kind of restrictions that are presently being imposed in Europe," the statement said.

Spokespersons from different airlines complained in similar terms:

Peter Hartman, chief executive of Dutch carrier KLM, said there had been "nothing unusual" about a test flight carried out by the airline through European skies, and that he hoped to "get permission as soon as possible to partially restart our operations".

Steven Verhagen, vice-president of the Dutch Airline Pilots Association, told the Associated Press, "In our opinion there is absolutely no reason to worry about resuming flights."

An airplane does the obvious maneuver and climbs altitude to clear the volcanic plume

Germany's two biggest airlines, Lufthansa and Air Berlin, also reported carrying out test flights without apparent damage, and soon Air France joined the chorus.

Air Berlin spokeswoman Diana Daedelow told the BBC: "It is astonishing that these findings... have seemingly been ignored in the decision-making process of the aviation safety authorities."

And:

A spokesman for Lufthansa, Germany's flag carrier, told Spiegel Online, "The airplanes can simply fly around the affected areas and still arrive in New York a few minutes later," the spokesman said. "It's no real drama."

As well as:

Matthias Ruete, the European Commission's director general of transport, said air traffic authorities should not have imposed a widespread ban.

He suggested the ban should have been restricted to a 20 to 30 mile limit around the volcano in Iceland.

Notice that the airlines did their homework and carried out a number of test flights with no adverse effects detected.

The pressure from lobbying efforts by the airlines seem to have done the trick to lift the ban in northern Europe. The case of the UK is most telling, as the Civil Aviation Authority and NATS, the national air traffic controller, said that information about how jet engines could cope with adverse ash conditions only "became available" the day before the ban was lifted - that is, after aircraft and engine manufacturers changed their advice on commercial jets' ability to withstand contamination from volcanic ash clouds. In fact it's been reported that British Airways were so infuriated by the closure of airspace that its CEO Willie Walsh had 24 teams of pilots fly BA jets from various airports around the world to the UK, and it was only for the fact that they were circling over London (and now dangerously low on fuel) that the British CAA had no choice but to permit them to land. BA essentially called the British government on its BS, which then invented a lame excuse after the fact to explain its change of mind. As if to help the authorities cover their tracks, the UK tabloid Daily Star chose to delight its readers the day after British skies reopened with a front cover worthy of a place in the Hall of Fame for Trash Journalism:

British tabloid The Daily Star pulled an Orson Welles with this hoax the day after British Airways forced the opening of British airspace

The image of the plane going down in a blaze of glory was a still from a reconstruction of the 1982 case of BA Flight 9, as shown on British television the previous evening. Shops at British airports found it distasteful enough to remove it from their shelves.

It is worth pondering the real causes for the airspace shutdown, because it sure was an expensive decision. Some 63,000 flights were canceled costing airlines between 1.5 billion and 2.5 billion euros and supply lines for international trade were affected globally, from China to Kenya to the United States. Why would they shut down airspace if there was no real threat? Well, perhaps it should not really be any surprise, since we live in the age of manufactured threats (the 'War on Terror' anyone?). But it's interesting to note the immediate effects. For starters, the Single European Sky II package, which was set to start in 2012, will now go through a fast-tracking process. The idea is to organize European air traffic according to traffic flows rather than national borders by implementing a single European system for air traffic. In other words, it is about centralizing the administration of air travel. This was confirmed by the European Aviation Safety Agency when it announced a policy shift to bring it in line with its US counterpart:

European air safety watchdogs are proposing new rules that could reduce airspace closures due to volcanic ash.

The new system would adopt the US practice of imposing a 120-mile no-fly buffer zone for all aircraft near any visible ash plume, a significant departure from current procedures. [...]

The European Aviation Safety Agency has discussed the plans with the US Federal Aviation Administration, the European Commission, airlines and other national authorities.

"We have put forward a proposal for an air traffic rule, effectively adopting the US rules," a spokesman said.

Another obvious effect has to do with the acclimatization of the population to the idea that travel can be shut down with little advance notice and for very dubious reasons. The media is prepping the masses for a "summer of disruption". Ireland has re-imposed the ban on its air space because a change in wind direction apparently means that "Ireland falls within the predicted area of ash concentrations". Irish airports closed, reopened, then closed again in the space of 24 hours last week. Eurocontrol, which determines the air routes that airliners can use over Europe, has issued alerts based on predictions of potential disruption presented as statements of fact:

"The restrictions are required as the increased level of recent volcanic activity has created a massive ash cloud stretching 1,000 miles long and 700 miles wide," the authority said in a statement.

Interesting Orwellian term, Eurocontrol, n'est-ce pas? The British Civil Aviation Authority has warned that "flights will be disrupted for the foreseeable future" as a "change in wind direction" again grounds planes in the UK. By last weekend 'Ashteria' (hysteria generated by non-existent ash clouds) had spread to France, Spain and Portugal, even as authorities in Iceland reported that volcanic activity was calm:

"Explosive activity seems to have decreased," the Icelandic Met Office reported. "The ash plume does not rise as high into the air and is lighter in color"

Suggestive coloring

The satellite image to the left was meant to illustrate how the "ash cloud" had skirted the length of western Europe as far south as Morocco (where a flight ban was also imposed for 24 hours last week!). But the only material from the volcano that it shows is the small red plume stretching south from Iceland for about 200 kms (at the top of the image). Hardly "1,000 miles long and 700 miles wide." The rest of the colouring is suggestive of an "ash cloud" over Europe, but is merely normal cloud cover. Just as somebody wants us to imagine that the planet is warming when we can all feel and see from the real data that it is cooling, the PTB want us to imagine that an "ash cloud" is blotting out the sun and is dangerous for airplanes to fly through. New "fluid" model for maximising stress in terms of uncertainty and chaos for travel and international freight were outlined today by the UK's new Transport Minister today as he announced a three day flight ban for the UK until Tuesday 18 May:

Parts of British airspace could be closed for up to three days from today because of volcanic ash from Iceland. [...]

Philip Hammond, the transport secretary, said the situation was "fluid", but that passenger safety was the government's top priority.

Five-day ash prediction charts were made available on the Met office website for the first time yesterday. Previously forecasts were given only for the following 18 hours.

"We want airlines, other transport providers and the public to have the best possible information. However, the situation remains fluid and these forecasts are liable to change," said Hammond. [...]

The transport department said: "Within this timeframe, different parts of UK airspace - including airspace in the southeast - are likely to be closed at different times."

In short, the PTB now have an excuse to close airspace whenever it suits them. Their scientists are supporting them by announcing forecasts of "decades of ash clouds." We tend to agree with British Virgin Airlines owner Richard Branson who has described this as "a joke" and "an overreaction." He again reminded people that test flights by airlines, aircraft and engine manufacturers have shown no evidence that airlines could not continue to fly completely safely. The current "fluid" British flight ban will end on the eve of massive British Airways strikes that will combine with these so-called "5-day ash prediction charts" to ensure continued travel disruption into the summer months. But this is no joke in a 'globalised' world where countries have come to depend on imports from abroad to cover even their most basic needs. We are being toyed with - conditioned, in fact - to accept restrictions upon our freedom of movement and a tightening of the economic noose around our necks.

OMG the ash cloud is coming! O wait, there IS NO ash cloud