Among the lessons: Pilot training, computer modeling to accurately predict ash trajectories and regular testing of the skyways when eruptions occur are crucial to maintaining safety and keeping planes flying. The Alaska Airlines experience suggests a volcanic eruption in Iceland doesn't have to ground all flights in Northern Europe - there are ways to work around it.
Alaska Air won't fly through an ash cloud, or take off or land with ash in the air, but beyond that, it seeks safe skies at least 35 miles from the ash cloud.
Whenever there's an eruption, the airline scrambles off-duty pilots in empty airplanes - some in Alaska Airlines' Boeings and others in smaller private planes - to take temperature and wind measurements at various altitudes. The data help validate satellite projections and computer forecasts.
"The more data you have, the more surgical you can be," said Ken Williams, Alaska Airlines' fleet captain.
Williams believes the recent European crisis over ash from an Iceland volcano will cause other airlines to follow Alaska's example.
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