A volcanic ash exercise in Kamchatka, Russian Federation called VOLKAM19 was successfully conducted from 18 to 19 April 2019 which exercised several objectives related to aviation stakeholders' response to two simulated volcano eruptions (Opala and Ushkovsky) in Kamchatka.
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The VOLKAM19 Debrief Meeting was held at the ICAO EUR/NAT Regional Office in Paris, France from 20 to 21 May 2019. Twelve (12) experts from three (3) States, one (1) airline and ICAO developed recommendations to consider for future exercises and real events. Passing reroute information from one ACC to another is essential in future events to reduce the chance of misreading an updated flight plan, reducing the work load for many stakeholders as well as reducing flight delays, diversions and cancellations. To achieve this, American Airlines plans to conduct a Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC) test. Furthermore, some procedural issues related to passing reroute information from Anchorage to Magadan Area Control Centre will be examined. Furthermore, an action to consider real-time coordination for a catastrophic volcanic ash event will be examined by the concerned States.
