Page 16 - Ash Clouds News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> reporter: at this point in the ash cloud, engines would start to fail as the particles got sucked into them. would the passengers be aware of that? >> passengers would now be hearing this. they would see the glow of the flames coming out of the back of the engines and this would be a crucial point in the concern for the passengers now. >> reporter: why not, some are asking, keep air space open during the day when perhaps the cloud could be seen and may be avoided? it is not that simple. >> when you think that that all these aircraft up there are flying on defined with defined separation, it...

Is that how it happened? >> that's right. when they took the engines apart and inspected them that's what happened. they -- the glass on the blades obstructed the air flow. >> could you see the cloud? >> no we were flying at night so there was no moon, no visual reference. you could probably see it in daylight but it was night. probably a lot of people are now aware, aircraft weather radar systems we have onboard are not designed to pick up the ash clouds. >> shepard: they pick up water. >> water and suspension and the ash clouds that we see forms a silica, like glass. >> shepard: you're flyin...

Of feet high so that's not where people live, but now as the ash is falling down, you will see it. if you see it on the hood of a car and then you know that it's in the air, but you know, this is what candy was talking about, how the skies turn red. it's the refraction, it's the reflection off of these things up in the upper atmosphere and you know what? the frustration with the flyers is there because the airlines don't know when the ash is really going to be out of the way. i'm just saying, you know, carol costello has this little segment called just sayin', i don't want to be in the first f...

All the flight crew had been able to see through the whole thing was a bizarre luminous glowing around the plane. that incident that happened in 1982 is why we have rules about not flying through clouds of ash from volcanos. a volcano in indonesia had erupted. that british airways flight went right through the ash cloud. it was at night. they couldn't see it. ash clouds are dry so they don't turn up on weather radar. the particulate matter from that volcanic cloud just locked up that jet's engines. the rules now, flights to keep 120 nautical miles away from volcanic ash. volcanos go off from t...

Detecting earthquakes, tracking the depths of earthquakes, measuring the volcano changing shape and moving as mag ma is moving underground. and it's important to use satellite technology to look down on these ash clouds from space to see which way they're traveling. you really need a variety of monitoring techniques, in addition to aerial observations from aircraft at a safe distance. tina neal, you have a really cool job and it was cool of you to join us at a busy time. thank you so much. >> you're welcome. so today was the day that the anti-health reform faith healer who we introduced you ...