Kuala Lampur, Sept. 6 -- The departure board says "DELAYED". Then "CANCELLED". Around you, children are sleeping on luggage, phones are being charged wherever a socket can be found, and somewhere beyond the airport, an Indonesian volcano is quietly changing thousands of travel plans.

If you are one of those waiting tonight, let me tell you a story.

It is a story about a very large aeroplane, a very powerful volcano and a night when nature reminded human beings that sometimes the safest journey is the one we postpone.

On June 24, 1982, British Airways Flight BA009 was flying from Kuala Lumpur towards Perth. The aircraft was a Boeing 747-200 named City of Edinburgh, cruising at around 37,000 feet above Indonesia when it entered something...