Flight into danger

Remember the Scotsman's headline "Scots keep world flying in fallout from volcano"? And the First Minister of the Scottish soi disant Government, Alex Salmon's announcement that Scotland "offered a window of opportunity for flights to be diverted from elsewhere, easing congestion across the Western world."?

Well I offer you a graphic from the BBC's website showing a snapshot of the flight situation at 1.00pm today:-

There doesn't seem to have been much effect on congestion in the USA yet, Alex. Perhaps you need to launch a consultation on engaging with key-stakeholders in the North American transport market (after you've consulted them of course).

Elsewhere, I was thrilled to hear about British Airways sending up a 747 to deliberately fly through the ash cloud to see what happened. I have a lot of questions about this. For example did the pilot look like a cross between Charlton Heston and Chuck Yeager? Was he wearing a parachute in case all four engines stopped and they couldn't get them going again? Did BA's insurers agree to cover them for the loss of the plane? (As I assume not, why not a smaller and more expendable 737?) Was the flight into the ash cloud conducted over water so at least it wouldn't plough into a residential area if the test had gone tits up? Was Charlton Yeager wearing a life jacket?