One other thing about my previous posts. They assume a small to moderate
eruption, where the ash cloud will not extend more than 100 miles downwind.
Even there, flying through the ash cloud will be like flying through a Texas
sandstorm, not something you would want to do every day.

But suppose the big one hits, like 1980. It will become dark as night as far
east as Idaho. People will be killed by heat and poisonous gases up to 20
miles away. The shock wave will be felt for hundreds of miles. All trees and
structures will be leveled for 20 miles. The ash cloud will travel around
the world several times. The explosive power will exceed that of all the
earth's nuclear weapons combined. You would not want to be anywhere near
such an explosion, in an airplane or anything else.

Mt. Rainier is similar in structure to St. Helens, only bigger and even more
powerful. It has thousands of years of glaciated water built up on its
slopes. It is located in a much more densely populated area. Should it
explode (and it might), loss of life could reach into the hundreds of
thousands and it could well be the worst and most devasting natural disaster
in history. There is some evidence of a prehistoric volcanic explosion at
Yellowstone that reduced the worldwide human population to fewer than a
dozen individuals, but that event has yet to be proven.