On air: What have we learned from the volcano crisis?
| 09:51 UK time, Wednesday, 21 April 2010
The planes are starting to fly and so are the accusations. As has been the case every day of this crisis, it's been impossible to narrow this down to one issue. So we're going to ask you this over-arching question to bring in...
a) whether the authorities over-reacted.
b) if Europe needed stronger and clearer leadership.
c) if your life or business is over-reliant on air travel.
d) whether we need clearer guidelines on when we can and can't fly through volcanic ash.
e) if airlines have had too much or too little influence over when airspace is opened and closed.
and anything else you'd care to raise. here's Krupa's original post about this...
The dust is settling on the ash chaos, the blanket flight ban has been lifted and the finger pointing now begins.
Operations could take weeks to return to normal. Has the disruption been worth it?
Frank Furedi thinks not. He calls it an overreaction based on speculation, not science.
'We live in an era where problems of uncertainty and risk are continually amplified... Consequently, unexpected natural events are rarely treated simply as unexpected natural events - instead they are swiftly dramatised and transformed into 'threats to human survival'.
Patrick Smith, who was on our show the other day disagrees.
'There are those things in the world over which he have little or no control. It's almost funny watching and listening to the frustrations of certain people, who see this crisis as one of human failure rather than simple human frailty.'
Scientists say it's difficult to predict volcano behaviour. So how should the world react if and when another eruption of this kind happens?
