Military

Alaska Volcano Eruption Called Danger to Commercial Airplanes

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: May 29, 2017 6:55 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 11:34 am

Bogoslof Volcano erupted and sent debris far enough into the atmosphere to pose a danger to jet engines. Commercial and military aircraft will need to stay clear from the area for now.

Bogoslof Volcano is in the Aleutian Islands. According to Bloomberg, ash was thrown 35,000 feet into the air when the volcano erupted at 2:16 yesterday. The eruption lasted 55 minutes.

The event caused the Aviation Color Code to be raised to “red”. These codes are used to identify the danger of volcanos to air traffic. The levels are green, yellow, orange, and red. Green means a volcano is inactive. Red means:

Eruption is forecast to be imminent with significant emission of ash into the atmosphere likely. Or: Eruption is underway with significant emission of ash into the atmosphere.

The largest recent eruption which signficantly affected commercial airline travel was from the Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland in 2010. Flight from large section of Europe were cancelled, and these cancellations went on for days. Most flights from Europe to the U.S. were cancelled from April 15 to April 23. After that there were a number of cancellations which lasted a week in some places. According to the International Air Transport Association, the Iceland eruption cost carriers over $100 million a day

For the time being the Bogoslof Volcano eruption is much less severe than Eyjafjallajökull and is not over an area which could cripple large numbers of flights.