Pain in the Ash: Faulty Computer Models Lead to Chaotic Airport Shutdowns

These clowns can't even accurately predict what's going to occur over a two-day span, but we're supposed to believe them when it comes to mythical global warming and what temperatures will be like decades from now.

How's this for junk science?

The airport chaos that hit tens of thousands of travellers yesterday was based on a faulty ash cloud prediction.

Officials closed south-eastern airspace for ten hours following a Met Office alert about dangerous levels of ‘black’ ash.

Yet when the forecasters took fresh soundings, and sent up a plane to check, they found their assessment was flawed: there was no such ash.

By the time the mistake had been realised, Heathrow had cancelled 169 arrivals and departures and Gatwick more than 200. An estimated 50,000 passengers were affected.
Willie Walsh, boss of British Airways, said the shutdown was a gross over-reaction to a very minor risk. ‘I am very concerned that we have decisions on opening and closing of airports based on a theoretical model,’ he added.

‘There was no evidence of ash in the skies over London yet Heathrow was closed.’

Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s chief executive, said: ‘It is frankly ridiculous that the flight plans of millions of air passengers are being disrupted on a daily basis by an outdated, inappropriate and imaginary computer-generated model. It is time these charts were done away with.’

Oh, no, can't do that. Then some government-employed layabouts might have to find jobs in the real world instead of making people's lives miserable.