Eruption of Mt. Redoubt

This picture and note arrived from Randy:
Attached is a pix of the latest eruption of Mt.Redoubt near Anchorage Alaska.
It is a frighteningly beautiful pix - but the aftermath of volcanic ash clouds
in the atmosphere doesn't mix with aircraft engines very well (at all....). I
had the distinct pleasure (not.....) of being on duty last Sunday evening when
it decided to become violent - that was one ugly shift!! Since that time we've
canceled almost 300 flights in the ANC market to either avoid flying through
volcanic ash clouds or operating with volcanic ash on the ground at the
Anchorage airport.

Putting the "puzzle" back together and figuring out ways to haul stranded
passengers (and cargo) in between eruptions has meant a lot of extra hours (and
days) worked, by everyone at AS. One of my friends came in the System
Operational Control (SOC) office the other day and commented that it looked
like a war room. I don't remember that it looked that bad .....

Of course there is no prediction of how long this will go on - the last time it
blew (20 yrs ago) it went on for four months - I guess it could be like the
volcano's in Hawaii and continue infinitum - I vote for it settling down
tomorrow :-)

But hey - what is the sport of working in the airline industry if you don't
have a challenge...... Take care and hope to see you soon.

R

You can tell Randy loves his work.....he also reminds me that solving all of these problems is why he gets paid the big bucks :).

I love my kids and I love being an Arizona Gramma
Mary Ann