Any flights affected by this recently ??

I can't dig up any info on this. What exactly happened?

Here is info from cnn.com, but if you do a Google search, I'm sure you'll get the same answers! ;) :

"Have there been any fatal incidents?

No. But a number of aircraft have flown into ash clouds over the years, resulting in a few near-fatal incidents.

In April 1982, British Airways Flight 009 en route to Auckland from London flew into a cloud of dust and ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung, on the Indonesian island of Java, resulting in the failure of all four of its engines.

Fortunately the pilots were able to glide the Boeing 747-200 far enough to exit the ash cloud, before three of the engines were restarted, allowing the crippled flight to divert to Jakarta and perform a safe landing.

At the time it was the longest glide in a non-purpose-built aircraft.

The event was also remembered for the announcement made by the airliner's remarkably calm captain, Eric Moody.

He told passengers: "Ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them under control. I trust you are not in too much distress?"

In December 1989, KLM Flight 867 en route to Anchorage in Alaska from Amsterdam flew into a normal looking cloud, which turned out to be a volcanic ash cloud -- the result of an eruption of Mount Redoubt, a volcano in the Aleutian Range.

The pilots increased the power in an attempt to climb out of the cloud, but all four engines on the Boeing 747-400 failed shortly after and the standby electrical system failed.

Fortunately the crew eventually managed to restart the engines two at a time, enabling the airliner to land safely at Anchorage, despite extensive damage to the windshields, internal aircraft systems, avionics and electronics."

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/0...iref=allsearch

Saw a documentary on this last night. It's amazing how calm the pilot was.

Care to share? ;)

(Well, I would be calm too - there's no way to predict this, until it happens...)

It was just this documentary on the BA flight and showed exactly what happened. It's amazing how they landed without being able to see outside as the windscreen was all worn away by the small particles of rock.

Wow - instrument landing - textbook!

There's also a novel based on this event, called "All Four Engines Have Failed" I read it when I was in grade 6 ;) **author Betty Tootell, who was a passenger onboard*** I vivdly remember all the detail described, and apparntly in the novel it was described that the flight did not gain permission to land in CGK, rather they continued to PER, dunno if it was added in for the sake of the story... But there was a part when the plane made a transit stop in BOM, an Indian F/A last name was Chauhan, his young daughter was quite distressed at the airport like crying, thus they tried to make a point that the lil girl had the feeling something was/would go wrong.... anyway its a good read....

Secondly, I would like to ask during the volcanic disruption was AA/CO still operating flights DEL-EWR and DEL-ORD ??? just in that case, couldn't AI/9W have gone non-stop or they don't have the a/c? I believe AI does do JFK-DEL non stop ??? or is it only possible on that particular route over the atlantic i.e. over European airspace/icelandic etc.... ?
cheers^

Love the way how the pilot states "We cocked up"

Eric Moody and his crew are living testament that Volcano Ash should not be taken lightly!

I pray to god a plane does not fall out of the sky because the way they have just suddenly re opened the skies, i get the feeling that somebody has pressured them to do so.

AA/CO must have continued - they can simply reroute.

9w *might* have been able to do it with 77w's, but most are on lease on the HKG routes, so this would be major rescheduling of crew, equipment, and all logistics - not a good idea in India!

Can a 77W do this flight non stop? I would be interested to know.

AI uses a 77L, what does AA use? It comes up as 777 on the schedule, but which version?

777-200LR.

Ahh. So can a 77W do this route too?

Barely, with reduced load, I would think - but I'm no expert.

Added:

"The maximum range is 7,930 nautical miles (14,690 km),[138] made possible due to a higher MTOW along with the increased fuel capacity.[129][130] The -300ER can fly approximately 34 percent farther than the -300 with a full load of passengers and cargo.[82] Following flight testing, the implementation of engine, wing, and weight modifications produced an added 1.4 percent reduction in fuel consumption.[75][139"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_777

That's just barely over to the East Coast, I would think, as that's about the mileage I get with LH for this route via FRA.

"flight Distance between Mumbai, India and Newark, NJ
The flight distance from Mumbai, India to Newark, New Jersey is:
7,811 miles / 12,570 km"

http://www.travelmath.com/flight-dis.../to/Newark,+NJ

"How many air miles between Newark NJ and Mumbai India?
In: Air Miles, Mumbai [Edit categories]
[Improve]

7791 Statute miles.

6771 in Nuatical or "Air Miles" "

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_a...d_Mumbai_India

It's slightly shorter from DEL, too.

http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=D...OR=&MAP-STYLE=