A report by Icelandic and Danish scientists has found that the closure of airspace due to the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano was justified.
According to the study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, concerns for air transport were “well grounded”.
It said: “The particles of explosive ash that reached Europe in the jet stream were especially sharp and abrasive over their entire size range, from submillimeter to tens of nanometers.”
As the “unusually fine-grained ash particles” were “very sharp and hard”, aircraft were at risk of abrasion to their windows and body, and melting in jet engines.
Ryanair, however, has rejected the reports findings as “nonsensical”.
The no-frills carrier was at the time among a number of airlines, including British Airways, to protest at the aviation authorities’ decision to close airspace over much of Europe last April.
Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara questioned why flights in Alaska or South East Asia are allowed to operate safely during periods of volcanic activity, by establishing 30 or 50km no fly zones, but last year during a volcanic eruption in Iceland, airspace was closed 3,000, 4,000 and 5,000 kms away,
He said there had been “no evidence of volcanic ash, but lots of evidence of scientific bungling and regulatory mismanagement.”
“This report was clearly designed to cover the embarrassment of these bungling scientists,” he added, “and the regulators who completely cocked up and mismanaged the closure of much of Europe’s airspace during April and May 2010 when there was no threat to air safety anywhere except over Iceland”.