LETTERS

We are too afraid of risk


To The Times
I flew aircraft for 15 years and would agree with all fellow pilots that weather was the worst enemy.
As far as I am aware, I never flew through volcanic ash. But tens of thousands of aircraft must have done so over the past 50 years and some of them will have been over the UK. The current conditions are unusual but not unique.
It is all about density. Thick ash is a huge risk and has been demonstrated to stop engines, although I am not sure that it has yet claimed one life, because of the skill of the crews. It has not been shown that thin ash is a serious risk. Test flights seem to indicate that it causes few problems to the engines or airframe. Engines are made to be extremely strong. If they were not, then the chance of hail storms would be reason enough for grounding flights on this scale.
As a nation, and even a global community, we have become incredibly risk averse. Given the information that has been published, I would have kept aircraft flying and gladly flown in them.
If you took risk to its ultimate conclusion, you would not place 300 passengers in a metal tube and propel them to 30,000ft.
Could this be a turning point when common sense takes over from our risk- averse culture?
Phil King, Willinghaw, Cambs


Iceland must pay

7b The Daily Telegraph First our fish, then our investments, now our airspace. I trust the Prime Minister will again be making use of Britain's anti-terror legislation to extract suitable compensation from this rogue nation. Peter Thody, Leeds


Goodwill stops at Calais

To The Independent We have just returned from Frankfurt airport using six trains and a ferry.
I would like to thank all the wonderful people who helped to get us home, especially the employees of Deutsche Bahn, who tried to organise train routes through Europe, and the manager of rhe last train to Brussels - who encouraged people only travelling to Cologne and Bonn to get off the train so that the long- distance travellers could get on.
Other Belgian train officials organised taxis and hotels at lam, and a hotel manager hooked us in at 2am and had breakfast for us at 5.30am. They were all wonderful. We left Frankfurt at 7pm on Friday and were home at


4.30pm on Saturday.
It is a shame that the goodwill stopped at Calais ferry terminal, where foot passengers were charged €65, the same price as a single train fare from Dover to Wolverhampton. Susan Tappin, Wolverhampton

Carbon compensation


To The Daily Telegraph Does the carbon reduction from all the cancelled aircraft flights compensate for the carbon thrown up by the
volcano, or is it a different sort of carbon? Victor Lucas, Warboys, Cambridgeshire


Poor priorities

To The Guardian In their manifestos. Labour lumps immigration in with "Crime", the Tories have it under "Change the Economy", and the Lib Dems have it under "Your Community". Does this not tell you everything you need to know- about how each of them values people? Liz Williams, London

A tall order
To The Daily Telegraph After the television debates, I am thinking of voting Lib Dem, as Nick Clegg came across as the tallest of the three. At a time when France is increasingly ridiculed for having a short leader, we should not allow trivial matters of policy to distract us from the crucial height issue.


Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, Northwood, Middlesex
Gloomy memories
To The Guardian People optimistically anticipating a hung parliament should reflect that the previous one was followed by Mrs Thatcher's victory in 1979. And last time the third party enjoyed a significant revival, it helped to secure her victories in 1983 and 1987. Those of us fearing yet another fracturing of the Left will perhaps be feeling a little gloomier than those with poorer memories. Brian Hughes, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire