Fri May 18, 2012
Yaffa Fredrick (center)
A Sleeping Beast Awakes
By: Yaffa Fredrick, Great Britain – April 2010
April 15th— an umbrella-free day, a rarity in the United Kingdom, also marked the beginning of the largest passenger lockdown since World War II. An Icelandic volcano—Eyjafjallajokull—had erupted after nearly two centuries of dormancy, and in its wake it left a path of ash, which posed a severe threat to airborne aircraft. This resulted in 63,000 flights cancelled, the closure of 300 airports in the United Kingdom and Ireland, with countries such as France, Belgium, Germany and Holland following suit.
Although earlier in the week a New York Times’ headline mentioned some volcanic activity, I barely took notice, believing it to be another one of Mother Nature’s bouts of fury with the world. I never imagined a volcano hundreds of miles from London would directly affect me.
Dismissing the incessant buzzing on my mobile phone, I decided to enjoy a leisurely brunch in northern London Thursday morning. Nothing could be so urgent as to demand such immediate attention. However, upon the fourth vibration, I picked up. It was my travel companion in Paris—Chloe— who had been trying desperately to call me for the last two hours.
“Did you read the news this morning?”
Strangely enough, for the first time in recent memory, I had not even glanced at the headlines.
“Well, according to the papers, your flight is not departing. Volcanic ash is covering the British airways, and I won’t go into detail now, but when volcanic ash comes in contact with an airplane, bad things happen.”
I laughed at first, unable to grasp the idea that a volcano had erupted, let alone disrupted air traffic entirely in one of the world’s busiest travel cities. I vowed to Chloe that I would head to London Stansted Airport and try to make sense of what seemed to be one of the most absurd weather stories in recent history.
At the bus stop to Stansted, the bus driver told me that the airport was completely closed. No facilities were open. No flights were departing. Apparently some 30,000 passengers were stranded – now scrambling to find places to sleep, eat, and re-organize their travel itineraries. Though my airline still claimed its flight was scheduled, I took the driver’s word and ventured back to my friend’s flat in London.
Determined to fly to Barcelona, our travel destination of choice, with or without me, Chloe traveled to Charles de Gaulle Airport only to discover a similar reality. All flights had been suspended indefinitely. In her case, this discovery came only 10 minutes before her scheduled departure, as she and her fellow Parisian passengers sat at the departure gate.
Nearly 36 hours later things proved to be no better. Airports, airlines, and passengers were at a loss. Battling an enemy we cannot see – the plumes of debris are between18,000-33,000 feet in the air – this natural disaster caused tempers to flare up as well as passengers were beyond eager to get to their destinations.
As an American in the midst of her study abroad adventure, I am attempting to examine this unpredictable turn of events as a learning experience. In the last day and a half, I have negotiated one flight contract and two insurance policies; assisted one blind traveler to a hotel in central London; and enjoyed the city I am in, rather than deplore the city where I am supposed to be. As the song lyric goes, “If you can’t be with the one you love, honey, love the one you’re with.”
Nonetheless, I cannot help but think about all the security measures we go through to combat terrorist threats. Indeed, to many politicians, the greatest threats facing the modern world are posed by small, but highly active terrorist cells scattered around the globe.
Eyjafjallajokull—however— is not the leader of a terrorist cell, or even a trainee in a terrorist camp. It is a volcano, which after 187 years of solitude, decided to release its contents onto the European continent.
As a Yiddish proverb states, “Man plans and God laughs.” Security screenings at the airports may stop terrorists, but they do not stop volcanic eruptions or any other form of natural disaster threatening the globe.
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