Volcano causes air traffic mayhem
Source: Agencies |
April 16, 2010, Friday
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Print Edition
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AN ash cloud from Iceland's spewing volcano halted air traffic across a wide swath of Europe yesterday, grounding planes on a scale unseen since the 2001 terror attacks as authorities stopped all flights over Britain, Ireland and the Nordic countries.
Thousand of flights were canceled, stranding tens of thousands of passengers, and officials said it was not clear when it would be safe to fly again.
In a sobering comment, one scientist in Iceland said the ejection of volcanic ash - and therefore possible disruptions in air travel - could continue for days or even weeks.
With the cloud drifting south and east across Britain, the country's air traffic service banned all non-emergency flights until at least 7am today. Irish authorities closed their air space for at least eight hours, and aviation authorities in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland took similar precautions.
The move shut down London's five major airports including Heathrow, a major trans-Atlantic hub that handles over 1,200 flights and 180,000 passengers per day.
Airport shutdowns and flight cancellations spread across Europe - to France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland - and the effects reverberated worldwide.
Airlines in the United States were canceling some flights to Europe and delaying others. In Washington, the Federal Aviation Administration said it was working with airlines to try to reroute some flights around the massive ash cloud.
Flights from Asia, Africa and the Middle East to Heathrow and other top European hubs were also put on hold.
The volcano's smoke and ash poses a threat to aircraft because it can affect visibility, and microscopic debris can get sucked into airplane engines and cause them to shut down. The plume, which rose to between 6,000 and 11,000 meters, lies above the Atlantic Ocean close to the flight paths for most routes from the US east coast to Europe.
It was not the first time air traffic has been halted by a volcano, but such widespread disruption has not been seen since the September 11 attacks in 2001.
In Iceland, hundreds of people have fled rising floodwaters since the volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier erupted on Wednesday for the second time in less than a month. As water gushed down the mountainside, rivers rose up to 3 meters by Wednesday night, slicing the island nation's main road in half. The volcano still spewed ash and steam yesterday.
"It is likely that the production of ash will continue at a comparable level for some days or weeks. But where it disrupts travel, that depends on the weather," said Einar Kjartansson, a geophysicist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office.
Thousand of flights were canceled, stranding tens of thousands of passengers, and officials said it was not clear when it would be safe to fly again.
In a sobering comment, one scientist in Iceland said the ejection of volcanic ash - and therefore possible disruptions in air travel - could continue for days or even weeks.
With the cloud drifting south and east across Britain, the country's air traffic service banned all non-emergency flights until at least 7am today. Irish authorities closed their air space for at least eight hours, and aviation authorities in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland took similar precautions.
The move shut down London's five major airports including Heathrow, a major trans-Atlantic hub that handles over 1,200 flights and 180,000 passengers per day.
Airport shutdowns and flight cancellations spread across Europe - to France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland - and the effects reverberated worldwide.
Airlines in the United States were canceling some flights to Europe and delaying others. In Washington, the Federal Aviation Administration said it was working with airlines to try to reroute some flights around the massive ash cloud.
Flights from Asia, Africa and the Middle East to Heathrow and other top European hubs were also put on hold.
The volcano's smoke and ash poses a threat to aircraft because it can affect visibility, and microscopic debris can get sucked into airplane engines and cause them to shut down. The plume, which rose to between 6,000 and 11,000 meters, lies above the Atlantic Ocean close to the flight paths for most routes from the US east coast to Europe.
It was not the first time air traffic has been halted by a volcano, but such widespread disruption has not been seen since the September 11 attacks in 2001.
In Iceland, hundreds of people have fled rising floodwaters since the volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier erupted on Wednesday for the second time in less than a month. As water gushed down the mountainside, rivers rose up to 3 meters by Wednesday night, slicing the island nation's main road in half. The volcano still spewed ash and steam yesterday.
"It is likely that the production of ash will continue at a comparable level for some days or weeks. But where it disrupts travel, that depends on the weather," said Einar Kjartansson, a geophysicist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office.
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