Volcano Continues to Disrupt Alaskan Travel

Alaska Airlines says it’s evaluating whether it’s safe to fly into Anchorage after Mount Redoubt erupted again overnight.

The airline had resumed flights to Anchorage on Wednesday, after the volcano’s first eruptions in 20 years burped ash into the sky. But then the eruptions resumed Thursday and continued into Friday morning, sending clouds of ash miles above south central Alaska. This time, light ash is expected to fall in Anchorage itself; previously, it had fallen in surrounding communities, including Wasilla, the hometown of Gov. Sarah Palin.

The Federal Aviation Adminsitration has closed the airspace within 10 miles of the volcano, but is leaving decisions on whether to fly in Anchorage up to individual airlines. The most-recent update from Alaska Airlines — the main carrier flying into the state — was that operations today are “very limited” and passengers should definitely check on the status of their flight before heading to the airport.

The volcano has played havoc all week with travel throughout the 49th state. With no planes flying, Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage is mostly empty. According to television reports in Seattle, where Alaska Airlines has its headquarters and hub, hundreds of passengers have been stranded, with some them stuck at the airport since Monday. Reports out of Alaska say a group of legislators has been stuck in Anchorage, unable to get back to the capital in Juneau, some 575 miles away. (There are no roads connecting Juneau to the rest of the state.) That’s caused the Legislature to cancel hearings.

For jet planes, volcanic ash is a peril that makes bird strikes — like the event that made Sully Sullenberger a national hero — seem like a mild inconvenience.

In the most-famous incident  — which, coincidentally, involved Mount Redoubt’s last series of eruptions in 1989 — an unsuspecting KLM 747 flew into a cloud of ash, which caused all four engines to flame out. Over the next five minutes, the plane fell 10,000 (that’s almost two miles) before the flight crew was able to restart two of the engines and eventually land in Anchorage. The encounter caused a reported $80 million damage to the plane, which “looked like it had been sandblasted,” according to reports at the time.