Eerie Silence over Lyneham
21st April 2010
Within the next three weeks, Royal Air Force Lyneham will achieve a remarkable milestone, the station records the seventieth anniversary of the official opening of the Wiltshire airbase. Over the last four decades, the skies of our countryside have been painted, both day and night, with the work horse of the armed forces, the C130 Hercules, affectionately known as Fat Albert. The giant air transporter has been flying to all four corners of the globe, delivering essential supplies to the troops and being actively involved with the majority of worldwide conflicts and mercy missions.

Something strange has occurred over the past seven days, the synonymous sound and scenes of the trooper aircraft flying over the skies and the etching of the sky by high level jets etching the sky with vapour trails have disappeared.

Iceland is known as the land of fire and ice and on the slopes of the Eyjafjallajokull glacier this has never been more true as pictures recently seen in the press show its volcano spewing molten ash into the sky at around 100 metres a second.

The dramatic crucible of lava and lightning has grounded flights across the Atlantic and northern Europe, bring chaos to hundreds of thousands of passengers. Ripping a half-mile fissure in a field of ice just over four weeks ago, the volcano ejected lava bombs and created forks of lightning, thought to be caused by charge-inducing collisions in volcanic dust.

Almost completely blocking out an otherwise blue sky, the cloud released from the volcano resembles a tornado as it sweeps across the landscape. North-westerly winds over the Atlantic have blown ash from an erupting volcano over the UK and Europe this week. Much of the continent's airspace has been closed for fear the ash will damage plane engines.

Over the weekend, the unusually quiet skies of Wiltshire are being missed by the people of North Wiltshire. "It's very strange and very eerie indeed, all we can hear is the sound of the vehicles pounding along the motorway bisecting our county and the sound of birds chirping away with their pleasant dawn chorus, not that I am complaining but I missed the Hercules sounds."

"It was weird to sit out in the evening and have a spring barbeque, looking up at the sky and not see a Hercules fly over our house"

"Early mornings are weird without no engines running, preparing to move off to their worldwide tasks. Over 500 people on the airbase have been affected as the Hercules fleet has been grounded for the first time its history at Lyneham. "

Last Thursday, a repatriation flight returning the body of a Swansea soldier killed in Afghanistan landed early as a cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland grounded UK planes.

Fusilier Jonathan Burgess, 20, of 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh, was killed in Helmand province Wednesday 7th April 2010. The plane landed three and a half hours early at RAF Lyneham. From midday Thursday a decision was made that there would be no flights into UK- controlled airspace except in emergency situations.

The embargo encroached on the scheduled timing, to repatriate the latest fallen hero who has paid the ultimate sacrifice serving for his country. A decision was made to bring the gigantic C17 Globemaster to RAF Lyneham ahead of the formal and private ceremony ensuring the major airway disruptions did not affect or delay the poignant moments for the Burgess family.

Troops due to fly back to Wiltshire from Afghanistan are likely to be delayed because of the ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano. The 150 soldiers from 4 Rifles, based in Bulford, had been due to return on Friday. They have now been withdrawn from the frontline to Camp Bastion, an Army spokesman said. Decisions will be made later about where they will go and how they will travel.

All flights into and out of RAF Lyneham remain suspended while restrictions on air travel are in place. An RAF spokesman said they were unable to bring injured soldiers back from the frontline so they were being kept in theatre and will only be moved if there is an urgent need. He said coalition partners were helping with their medical needs.

Ban Lifted
Airlines face a "huge logistical operation" as tens of thousands of Britons aim to take to the skies after a flight ban was ended last night, experts warn. Planes have landed at UK airports for the first time in six days after the flight ban due to a volcanic ash cloud. The Civil Aviation Authority approved a phased reopening of airspace because it said safety tests showed plane engines could cope in areas of low density ash. Travel body ABTA said it would be some time before normal schedules resume. It said this was partly because so many planes and crew were displaced from where they needed to be to pick up operations smoothly.