PERHAPS YOU had never heard of

Iceland's ash-spewing Eyjafjallajokull volcano

. (Even more likely is that you will never say the name aloud.) But thanks to thousands of canceled flights, millions of stranded passengers and billions in lost revenue and economic activity, it's a sure bet that you won't soon forget it. Now that limited airspace is being opened, we hope airlines will proceed with caution. Safety, not the protection of a company's bottom line, should be the guiding principle.

European transport ministers agreed Sunday to open their airspace after hearing loud complaints from airline and business interests across the continent that the airspace lockdown was an overreaction and lasting too long. The sky over the thick ash cloud has been designated a "no-fly" zone. Opening areas with some contamination by volcanic ash would be left up to national governments. An accumulation of fine glass deposits picked up from the cloud in airplane engines could shut them down. A British Airways 747 lost power in all four engines after flying through a volcanic ash cloud over Indonesia in 1982. The power returned, and the plane landed safely.

The teetering airline industry chafed under the blanket airspace lockdown imposed by the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol) last week. The halt in air travel stretched from northern Europe to northern Italy. The clamor to resume operations grew louder Sunday when KLM, British Airways, Lufthansa and other carriers announced that there was no damage to their aircraft during weekend test flights through the ash plume.

But reports of glass-like deposits in the engines of F-16 fighter jets that flew into the volcanic ash should be a caution flag for safety officials and commercial interests. Yes, the airlines have lost more than $1 billion. And the lost revenue from fresh produce that went undelivered and unsold and from disruptions in the supply chain that might mean diminished sales will assuredly run in the billions. Still, those bottom-line concerns cannot trump safety. With this eruption, nature has reminded us how vulnerable we are to its power. Officials must ensure that the push to get people home and products to store shelves does not put people and commerce at risk.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/20/AR2010042004609_pf.html

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