NASA's Unexpected Volcanic Ash Encounter Flight

NASA’s Unexpected Volcanic Ash Encounter Flight

Editorial Staff

Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

A NASA DC-8 unintentionally flew through a diffuse volcanic ash cloud, which initially showed no damage but later revealed significant, expensive, and hard-to-detect issues.
The incident demonstrated that even with up-to-date information and vigilant crews, volcanic ash threats can lead to misinterpreted data and serious, hidden consequences for aircraft.
NASA propulsion engineer Tom Grindle investigated the event, co-authoring a paper on his findings and discussing the ongoing threat and what has changed since the 2000 encounter.

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Ten years ago, a NASA DC-8 unintentionally flew through a diffuse ash cloud generated by Hekla, a volcano in Iceland, and upon first inspection showed no damage — key words “unintentionally” and “upon first inspection.” What the event showed is that the most up-to-date information on ash cloud location could be misinterpreted and significant damage could be incurred in spite of a vigilant, well-briefed flight crew. What’s more, that damage can be very expensive and hard to detect. Then NASA propulsion engineer Tom Grindle worked the case and co-authored a paper on his findings.

AVweb’s Glenn Pew caught up with Grindle in this week’s podcast for a better understanding of the threat, the potential for hidden consequences, and what’s changed since February 2000.

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