Scientific advice and evidence in emergencies

Supplementary written evidence submitted by the

Civil Aviation Authority (SAGE 42)

Thank you for your letter of 11 November 2010 in which you seek additional information for the Committee’s review of volcanic ash.

I am pleased to be able to provide the information that you have requested as follows.

Firstly, with regard to the relationship between SAGE and the CAA expert group(s) (Ref Q67 of the oral evidence), I can confirm that there was no formal relationship between SAGE and the group of experts that had been assembled by the CAA. The CAA, on Friday 16 April, marshalled together specialists from around the globe to work together to find a solution that would help to open up airspace in Northern Europe that was affected by ash. This group comprised representatives from regulators (e.g. the American Federal Aviation Administration, Transport Canada, and EASA), engine and aircraft manufacturers (including Airbus, Boeing, General Electric and Rolls-Royce), airlines (including British Airways), air traffic service providers, meteorologists, vulcanologists, and geologists. In all, approximately 100 people from over 60 organisations participated in the work, conducted by a series of telephone conference calls and e-mail, that resulted in a new tolerance threshold being scientifically established for the operation of aircraft in ash. This enabled large parts of airspace to be made available to flights on 20 April 2010.

Whilst a number of the UK experts in the "CAA Group" also participated in the subsequent meetings of SAGE, the timing of the meetings of this "CAA Group" and the later SAGE meetings meant that there was no formal link between the two.

I will now address your question about how SAGE validated the CAA’s work and how advice to Government was coordinated. The SAGE meetings identified the problems causing the flight restrictions, and considered what options were available to address them. SAGE came to the view that the issues broadly fell into two areas:

1. How much ash was in the atmosphere and where exactly was it?, and

2. How much ash could aircraft and engines safely tolerate?

In focussing on these two areas and the ways in which these issues could be tackled, SAGE confirmed that the work that the CAA had already set in train was targeting the right issues and objectives, thus effectively validating the approach taken by the CAA.

On the final point regarding the coordination of advice to Government, the CAA was only one source of such advice. The CAA appointed a programme manager for ash to coordinate all related activity within the CAA, and to ensure that all our advice and guidance was coordinated before being provided to Government – principally the Secretary of State for Transport and his Department -, other agencies and industry. In addition, the CAA contributed advice through its participation in SAGE and was also in regular contact with the Scottish Government.

Thank you for affording the CAA the opportunity to contribute to this important review.

Ray Elgy

Head of Licensing & Training Standards

Civil Aviation Authority

22 November 2010