The flight from Seattle to Portland was described as “a quick up and down” with no drink or snack service, and they implied that there would be little to see or do between takeoff and landing. However, the rimed remnants of Mount St. Helens rising above the clouds was a rare sight like I had never seen before and will likely never see again in my lifetime.
It brought back memories of the explosive eruption in 1980 that transformed the countryside and sent ash soaring into the air and blacked out the sky. I had originally planned to fly my family in a light airplane to Washington that day and would have been over western Oregon or eastern Washington when the dense cloud of ash darkened the sky with its engine-killing grit. However, the army had other plans, and I was instead stationed at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas taking care of refugees from Cuba.
Several aircraft suffered engine damage when they unwittingly entered the ash cloud and at least one crashed. Whether I would have recognized that unpredicted danger in time to avoid flying into the debris, I don’t know. I am certainly glad that I did not have to find out.
#sthelens #volcano #volcanicash #airplanes #eruption
Eskildoodle Photos and Feelings 