Ryanair flight causes a dust storm

Dust and ash from Iceland volcano is
causing panic among Europe's airlines.

Ryanair touched off a dust storm of controversy today when it flew one of its planes into the "red zone" set up over Scottish airspace because authorities fear the dust cloud spewing from the erupting volcano in Iceland will cause harm to aircraft engines.

Ryanair, wanting to prove the authorities wrong, said its plane completed a one-hour "verification flight" up to 41,000 feet over Scotland this morning without incident. The aircraft took off from Glasgow Prestwick, flew to Inverness, on to Aberdeen and down to Edinburgh.

European authorities ground planes when the volcano erupts and ash enters airspace because they fear the dust may harm delicate jet engines and thus put passengers in jeopardy.

In a statement to news organizations, a spokeswoman for the airline said: "There was no visible volcanic ash cloud or any other presence of volcanic ash and the post-flight inspection revealed no evidence of volcanic ash on the airframe, wings or engines.

"The absence of any volcanic ash in the atmosphere supports Ryanair's stated view that there is no safety threat to aircraft in this mythical 'red zone', which is another misguided invention by the UK Met Office and the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority)," the statement said.

Airlines all over Europe have had to cancel flights because of the ash cloud and fear a repeat of last summer's travel disruptions that led to them losing billions of dollars in lost revenue.

So who are we, the passengers, supposed to believe? The air authorities who claim to have our best interests at heart or a low-cost carrier who has a history of putting profits ahead of people.

I'd rather be safe than sorry - so sorry Ryanair, I won't take a chance on you.