Volcanic Ash Advisory Center

The operations and development of the IAVW are coordinated by the Meteorology Panel (METP) established by the ICAO Air Navigation Commission.

British Airways Flight 9, a Boeing 747, lost power to all four engines in 1982 over Indonesia after an eruption of Mount Galunggung.

It was recognised following these and other incidents that volcanic ash was a danger to commercial aviation and that the only way to ensure that there would be no loss of an aircraft was to alert pilots in a timely manner to divert their flight around the cloud.

They will then issue a volcanic ash advisory (VAA) to aviation and meteorological offices as stated within the Handbook on the IAVW.

Within the advisory the following information will be provided: the name of the volcano, the country/region, location and summit elevation of the volcano, the source of the information, e.g. satellite or pilot observation, details of the eruption including time of day in UTC and date of the eruption, details of the ash cloud including the vertical extent (in flight levels) and horizontal extent, detail on the current movement of the ash cloud, forecast movement and evolution of the cloud for 6, 12 and 18 hours ahead following the time of the advisory, any remarks by the VAAC and finally the next update time.