Volcanoes R Us

Graham Braithwaite (G.Braithwaite_at_unsw.edu.au)
Wed, 15 Oct 1997 15:06:14 +1000


Most people will probably remember the British Airways B747 which
temporarily lost all four engines en route to Perth, Australia in 1982. I
am sure its a great example of CRM although I am not sure where testing the
megaphone with the immortal line "can you hear me mother?" comes into
standard phraseology.

Can I recommend you chase up the following reference;

Volcanic Ash and Aviation Safety. Procedings of the First International
Symposium on Volcanic Ash and Aviation Safety. US Geological Survey
Bulletin 2047.

I am sorry I haven't got a date for it.

Maybe you could try the Australian Bureau of Meteorolgy as I know they have
a special program which was initially funded by Qantas to predict volcanic
activity. Although we have no active volcanoes in Australia, there is a rim
of activity especially through Indonesia, Malaysia, Phillipines and PNG
which sits beneath a large proportion of Qantas' international routes.

Hope this helps.

ps. Nice to see the discussion widen a little to include some of the
problems CRM is there to help solve.

Graham R. Braithwaite
Research Associate
Department of Aviation
University of New South Wales
Sydney 2052
Australia

Tel. + 61 (0) 2 9385 2806 (work)
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