This week’s eruption of an Icelandic volcano seems to be a repeat of much of last year’s drama when a larger eruption shut down much of Europe’s airspace for nearly a week, costing billions of Euros in the process. ** **
This time around, the authorities were well prepared, though how much good that preparation is doing is open to debate. In response to heavy criticism of the way it handled last year’s ash event, Eurocontrol last month ran a large-scale test of its response plan and got to try that plan with a real-world event only weeks after the mock run.
