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The ash-clogged skies were Story of the Day as airline travel across the Atlantic Ocean to northern Europe--and over much of northern Europe itself--was the unanimous choice as the lead on all three network newscasts. ABC has led with the volcanic plume spewing southeastwards from Iceland for the last three weekdays. CBS and NBC returned to the volcano after switching last Friday to the SEC lawsuit against Goldman Sachs for fraud. Add continuing coverage of high finance and the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City federal building bombing and this was a very heavy day of news.

Last week, aviation correspondents dramatized the potential problems of volcanic ash jamming airliners' jet engines, sending flights crashing to their doom. ABC's Lisa Stark and NBC's Tom Costello both retold the hair raising ordeal of Eric Moody, the pilot of a British Airways jet in 1982, whose engines stalled at 36,000 feet near Sumatra and could only be restarted after a powerless dive to an altitude of 10,000 feet.

Now the backlash. "After five days of massive disruptions, the pressure was mounting from airlines to get planes flying again because many of them believe the skies are safe," was how NBC's Dawna Friesen put it, mildly. "Beleaguered European carriers slammed their governments for their handling of this crisis, calling it chaotic and embarrassing," ABC's Nick Watt told us, somewhat more forcefully. CBS' Mark Phillips noted "furious complaints from the airlines that the blanket shutdown was an overreaction."

ABC's Sharyn Alfonsi filed the human interest angle on the stalled transAtlantic routes with a visit to JFK Airport in Queens NY. Getting ready to spend their fifth night on cots in the concourse, the passengers "have not had showers. They are short on cash."

Andrew Tyndall 4/20/10 11:55:54 pm

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