Shipping rises ‘from the ashes’
Posted on | April 21, 2010 | No Comments
It is sad commentary on our times, the way in which the people caught up in the great Icelandic ash emission (which perhaps may become known as “Reykjavik’s revenge”), fall blubbering to their knees at times of such diversity, demanding that “the government” does something to succour them.
Governments have many functions (arguably too many in the modern world), but the repatriation of package tourists does not immediately come to mind. It is scarcely a life or death situation, even though several days eating airport sandwiches may effectively shorten one’s life.
Now, of course, with the contrails once again criss-crossing the skies, those out of pocket as a result of this unforeseen natural occurrence, will be looking for somebody to blame, and as a logical consequence, somebody to sue. Clearly, even the best lawyer is unlikely to recommend a suit against God, but the various regulators who have implemented the “no-fly” ruling may well find themselves targeted.
The airlines themselves, bound by the mad EU regulation to provide sustenance to those whose flights have been cancelled, will be well advised to hire in some additional extra legal assistance over the coming months.
It would have been a different matter, one suspects if an aircraft had come to grief as a result of the ash cloud, or even experienced the heart stopping moments of those aboard that 747 which lost all four of its engines over Sumatra, all those years ago, landing with its captain and co-pilot peering through the opaque windscreen effectively sandblasted by the particles which had suffocated its propulsion systems. It is a pretty brave person who will suggest that the airline regulators were being overly risk-averse when Eyjafyoll blew up the other day.
Among all the blubbering and blaming, it is also worth offering a word of praise, not least to the ferry companies, who swung into action in a big way and showed once again how big capacious ships can help to evaporate the queues of people in a way that other modes of transport struggle to achieve. And a brand new cruise ship lifted 2000 people out of Bilbao.
Nobody noticed, of course, except a few hacks who accused the ferry companies of profiteering. It is why ships are still enormously important, even though aviation gets all the publicity.
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