19/05/2010
The Civil Aviation Authority has made some alterations to the safety limits for planes flying through the volcanic ash cloud.If you are about to go off on holiday you're going to want to know: "how safe is it, really?"
Before the events of April 2010 - a limit was set of 2mg of ash per cubic metre of air.
However, since midday on 18 May 2010 - the limit has been doubled to 4mg of ash per cubic metre of air.
Why has there been a change of heart?
As the disruption has continued, airlines and governments have been sending up test flights to see what the ash actually does to a plane. No one wants a plane to crash, but with chief executives looking alternately at hundreds of grounded planes and then their balance sheets, some had started to question whether the previous ban levels were set at reasonable figures or whether they were over-cautious.
We all love our holidays but we want to be safe in the sky!!