Volcano flights

Great experiences are often preceded by very poor decisions. For example, roadside ceviche.  But the coolest and stupidest experience of my life occurred yesterday, when I climbed into a six-passenger airplane and flew into the plume of a degassing volcano.

A group of volunteers generally goes on these flights whenever we have 5 people willing to pay. We fly over Volcan de Colima with a thermal camera and a normal DSLR so we can compare the images over time. I was responsible for the photographs on this flight.

It’s worth noting that I have a mild fear of heights and get nervous in propeller planes. But this is for science. 

We arrived at the airport and were greeted by a pilot. I didn’t learn this until today, but it turns out that he was Nick’s friend, who normally does these flights. He handed us off to another man, the only one not in a formal pilot uniform. This man, I later learned, had never done a volcano flight before.

All six of us climbed into the plane and took off. It was rather relaxing, getting to fly over Colima and the surrounding mountains. What a great pilot, I (incorrectly) thought.

 Then I heard “Is that a fumarole!?” A large fume was ascending from Volcan de Colima. 

 

There are certain questions that pilots should never ask their passengers. “Is it safe to fly into the smoke?” is one of those questions.

Haley was sitting in the front, and she could not speak any Spanish. Alicia, in the back, began translating between them, but the pilot could not hear her. Regardless, “no” is the same in both languages.

Alicia later told us that he said “It’s okay. If the engine dies we can just glide back to the airport.”

Thus, we headed for the degassing volcano, and it was awesome. As we circled around, we opened up the icy window and stuck out heads out to get good data.  This was definitely the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. This was also, apparently, the closest any group has flown over the volcano. And it was acting up as we did it.

When we landed, we saw a large explosion from the volcano. I am so thankful that we were not flying over it when that happened.

We are certainly blessed to be alive, but we are doubly-blessed to have these photos.