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Heathrow, Gatwick, and other airports disrupted

by Sean McLachlan on May 17, 2010

A large cloud of ash from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano is sweeping across the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, shutting down airports all across the islands.

Heathrow and Gatwick were closed until 7am local time and have been operating on a limited capacity with numerous delays and cancellations. This morning Gatwick had the strange situation of being able to allow planes to take off, but its approach path, which was closer to the ash cloud, was closed and no flights were able to land.

Airports also faced disruptions in parts of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and the Isle of Man. Rail services are adding extra trains to deal with stranded air passengers. Currently only Belfast City, Londonderry, Shetland, and Orkney airports are closed, but most other airports in the region are still trying to catch up after numerous delays and cancellations.

As the cloud continues to move south and east, it may cause disruptions on mainland Europe. Amsterdam’s Schiphol, Rotterdam, and Groningen airports in The Netherlands are closed until at least 2pm local time.

The Met Office, a UK weather predicting service, is predicting the winds over Iceland and the North Atlantic will shift to a more easterly direction in the coming days, blowing the ash up into the arctic regions and away from more populated areas. They have created maps showing the predicted spread of the cloud.

It’s summit day on Everest!

by Kraig Becker on May 17, 2010

Over the past week or so, climbers on the South Side of Mt. Everest have been working their way into position to take advantage of a possible weather window which would give commercial teams the first shot at the summit this year. For most of that week, high winds, sometimes in excess of 100 mph, have buffeted the upper slopes of the mountain, and there were conflicting reports as to whether or not those winds would die down. But yesterday, the skies cleared, the winds dissipated, and the window opened, giving way to the first major summit push of the season.

For the climbers, this will be the final leg of a two month long journey to the summit, a journey that begins with a ten-day trek to base camp itself. The weeks that follow are spent acclimatizing on the mountain. As the teams go higher up the face, they establish camps and stash their gear and supplies for later. But they are also training their bodies to work at high altitude, while slowly getting ready for the opportunity to stand on the summit, the highest point on Earth.

This weather window is expected to be a short one, and close fairly rapidly, but the climbers who moved up the mountain hoping for this opportunity have been rewarded, and it seems that they’ll have plenty of time to reach the top, and get back down safely. Other large commercial teams elected to pass on this attempt, looking ahead to another potential window forecast for early next week. That window should be longer and safer for their clients.

Meanwhile, on the North Side of the mountain, which falls in Tibet, the climbers have had to be much more patient. Bad weather had prevented the necessary fixed lines from being put into place until this weekend, when a large Chinese team completed that work. With the ropes in place, the way to the summit is now open, and climbers, such as 13-year old Jordan Romero, will soon be making their attempts as well.

The summit of Everest is not the finish line for these men and women. Getting back down the mountain is quite dangerous as well. For most of them, this is not just the culmination of two months of hard work, but also years of training and preparation as well. Perhaps even more importantly, it is the achievement of a dream

Photo of the Day (5.16.2010)

by Jeremy Kressmann on May 16, 2010

Street vendors fascinate me. Having grown up in a place where I was surrounded by gigantic shopping malls and cavernous grocery stores, it was surprising to discover on my travels such an intimate relationship between buyer and seller. Perhaps that’s why Flickr user don.wright’s image caught my eye today. It’s a great capture of one of Vietnam’s many street sellers. I like how the vendor’s conical hat mirrors the shape of the two wicker bundles in front. It adds a nice element of symmetry that grabs the eye.

Have any street vendor photos you’ve taken during your travels? Why not add them to our Gadling group on Flickr? We might just pick one of yours as our Photo of the Day.

Ryanair fined for not helping stranded passengers

by Sean McLachlan on May 16, 2010

Back during April’s travel mess, the European Union warned Ryanair because Ryanair refused to compensate stranded passengers for lodging and food. The EU told them they were legally required to, and the budget carrier backed down.

Here comes the sequel to that story.

Italy has slapped Ryanair with a three million euro ($3.75 million) fine for not providing 178 people at Rome’s Ciampino airport with help required under EU Regulation 261. This includes lodging and food that the airline was supposed to give stranded passengers.

Ryanair is denying the charges so this will probably end up in court. Ryanair will almost certainly bring up a provision in the regulation stating that, “obligations on operating air carriers should be limited or excluded in cases where an event has been caused by extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.”

Italian officials, however, have pointed out that most other airlines offered food and hotels for the duration of the shutdown. Plus Ryanair’s own website says that you’re covered by EU261, “If your flight is cancelled, for whatever reason.”

Considering that an estimated eight million passengers were affected by April’s volcanic eruption, this is probably only the first in a long series of legal actions.

The iPad as an inflight entertainment system?

by Scott Carmichael on May 16, 2010

Anything involving news about Apple products is always going to be an attention grabber – so when inflight entertainment company Bluebox announced an iPad powered entertainment system, the news spread like wildfire.

The system should be available by July, and Bluebox Managing Director Rick Stuart says that his solution will deliver iPad devices with pre-loaded content and an assortment of apps selected by the airlines. Access to the App store will be disabled. Rentals will be around $10 per flight.

Now, handheld rental inflight entertainment devices are by no means new – digEcor has been selling their system for years, and their digEplayers are available on several airlines. The difference is that their devices are specifically designed for the tough environment of commercial aviation.

The iPad is simply not designed to be used as a commercial rental entertainment device – don’t get me wrong – the idea of a rental iPad pre-loaded with a bunch of apps seems pretty cool, but there are so many things that can go wrong. According to Bluebox, the content on their iPads will be protected by “proprietary software” – but with such a closed system in use by Apple, there is only so much you can do to protect your content.

Battery life is also a problem – with constant use, an iPad may need a new battery after 7 or 8 months – which will involve sending them back to Apple. Then there is of course the issue of hacking or jailbreaking – without preventing physical access to the devices, it’ll only be a matter of time till someone hacks their way onto the device, even if it is just a way to kill some time during a boring flight.

[Via: Cnet]