WITH airlines gearing up for their busiest time of the year as tens of thousands of sun-starved Scots jet off abroad, the industry is casting a nervous glance north amid reports that two Icelandic volcanoes are currently primed to erupt.
Scientists have warned that Katla and Hekla, both in the south of Iceland, were showing worrying signs of seismic activity, with Hekla beginning to bulge near the crater as it did when it last erupted in 2000.
Thor Thordarson, volcanologist at the University of Iceland, warned: "There is no question whether they will erupt or not, the question is how big and how long will it last?"
An eruption could occur with as little as a few hours' warning, he added, plunging European airspace into lockdown for days if winds carry the cloud south – with Scotland in its path. Meanwhile, the North American aviation industry has been experiencing ash chaos of its own after Alaska's Pavlof volcano catapulted a cloud of hazardous dust 15,000 into the air two weeks ago. It was still pumping out ash five days later – with the plumes photographed by astronauts orbiting on the International Space Station – while air traffic controllers were forced to re-route planes.
Luckily for holidaymakers, the aviation industry is working on technology to avert the kind of ash cloud meltdown seen in 2010, when the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano left 10 million passengers stranded as planes were grounded for six days and 100,000 flights cancelled. Worst of all for airlines, it cost the industry an estimated £2.2 billion.
One of the key players in the efforts to design an infra-red "ash radar" is EasyJet. It makes sense for a brand which carries more passengers from the UK and Scotland than any other to want to avoid a dreaded Eyjafjallajökull: the sequel.
In the wake of the 2010 crisis, EasyJet's director of engineering Ian Davies, approached Fred Prata, a scientist at the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NIAR) who had been struggling for years to drum up interest in his ash detection technology. He finally had the aviation industry's attention.
His invention uses infra-red cameras which "see" silicate – the main component of the ash – from 18 miles away, giving the pilot time to change course and take the aircraft out of danger. If ash is sucked into the engines, it reacts with the heat to melt and form a glass-like material which clogs the machinery.
Earlier this month a tonne of volcanic ash was flown from Iceland to EasyJet's headquarters at Luton airport where engineers are working with colleagues from French-based Airbus and NIAR to perfect Dr Prata's Airborne Volcanic Object Imaging Detector (AVOID).
They hope to test it for the first time in August, probably over France, using two Airbus jets – one fitted with a sprinkler device to eject a cloud of ash, and another following behind which, all going well, will successfully deploy the AVOID detector to dodge it.
It might not be ready for an eruption next week, but with any luck neither will Iceland's volcanoes.
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