Volcanic Ash

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 going again. I trust you are not in too much distress. Not the in-flight announcement you want to hear… but this is exactly what the captain of British Airways Flight 9 said to his 247 passengers. On 24 June 1982, the Boeing 747 was flying overnight from Kuala Lumpur to Perth. After passing over West Java, the plane encountered a thick cloud of volcanic ash created by the erupting Mt Galunggung (map below). The ash did not appear on the plane’s weather radar, and – as it was an overnight flight – the pilots did not see/know why all four engines had suddenly stopped. To make matters worse, there was also acrid smoke in the cabin and the ash interfered with the plane’s radio communications. The pilots set a course for the nearest airport – Halim Perdanakusuma Airport, Jakarta – while repeatedly trying to restart the engines. However, they soon calculated also that