Uh, Never Mind...

...Sorry for the inconvenience, expense, and upheaval. We weren't wrong, mind you. But everything is just fine.

UK authorities had closed airspace because it had been absolutely, positively determined that no amount of volcanic ash is safe to fly through. Concentrations above most of England peaked at 200 milligrams / cubic meter. They are currently well under 100.

British Airways and other airlines that sent up test flights (without passengers, just pilots & engineers) found no damage to any of their planes. The UK government has now released standards that say it is permissible to fly through ash concentrations up to 2,000 milligrams / cubic meter.

So everything was alright all along.

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Seen last night on BBC (interview with UK Transport Minister):

TV presenter: Why were standards set at absolute zero up until this morning?

Minister: Because that's what the deeply studied mathematical models told us.

TV presenter: But now there is real-world, empirical evidence that prove some ash is okay?

Minister: That's what the airlines and aircraft manufacturers have suggested.

TV presenter: But you now have a standard more than zero and far greater than what's currently in the air.

Minister: Yes, well we've studied the results of their test flights and agree it can be done.

TV presenter: You say the models had been deeply studied for years...

Minister: Yes, deeply studied. We had considered the scenario for many years.

TV presenter: ...then why had no one thought to run a jet engine for several thousand hours on the ground while blowing volcanic ash at it.

Minister: Well that would be a very expensive test.

TV presenter: Certainly not the 1.1 billion pounds lost to the economy in the last week?

Minister: ....crickets chirping....

Gotcha journalism isn't very objectionable when the interviewee can't even figure out he's been gotten. Nor especially when the interviewer doesn't really intend to get anyone. Just asks the next logical question.