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Obviously a useful anecdote for anyone in the UK wondering why skies are clear and planes are on the ground...

I've heard of that anecdote but I still am not sure why it applies to the whole of Europe, let alone England.

Is there even a standard for how much volcanic dust there can be before airports are closed? How do they know we're currently over the limit? If they answer is that they don't really know, how will they know when it's over?

As far as I know there are no standards, but people are currently working very hard to figure some out.

France, Belgium and Netherlands (at least) have been conducting test flights during the weekend: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63G1U920100417

Finnish Air Force had some fighter jets in air on Thursday 15th, when the ash first hit Finland, and they've published some photos from inside the engines after some contact with ash:

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/04/16/340727/pictu...

Cool that they released the photos. Any insight into what we're seeing there, and how it poses a risk?

As far as I understand, the volcanic ash melts in the combustion chamber (where temperature is like 1000 C), and then later can solidify on surfaces, and may block cooling ducts and such.

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