Asking for Trouble

This article focuses on the mechanical limitations of commercial jetliners while flying through volcanic ash clouds. Flying through thick volcanic ash cloud can cause millions of dollars’ worth of damage to the engines—or even shut them down entirely. In order to find out what actually happens in a jet engine ingesting volcanic ash, there is a large body of laboratory data and analysis carried out from 1980 to 1996 by Michael G. Dunn and his colleagues at the Calspan Corp. in Buffalo. Based on the work of Dunn and his co-authors, Boeing has produced a video that goes through a set of procedures that a flight crew can take when encountering ash clouds. The rather extensive research work done by the Dunn group details the effects of volcanic ash on jet engines themselves. According to Dunn, research yet needs to be done on the extent that unfilterable tiny ash particles contained in the ash-laden engine compressor enter the cabin air (the haze reported on flight BA 9) and its effect on sensitive aircraft electronic components and humans.