Author Topic: Iceland Volcano blast (Read 3223 times)

Kudrat Kaur · « **on:** April 15, 2010, 06:58:19 PM »

Iceland's volcano grounded all UK planes, shut every airport and could cost £300million

The volcanoes in Iceland are among the most active in the world. Something is going off almost all the time. They have eruptions there usually every couple of years. This one seems to be a bit stronger than the other ones and the way the wind is blowing is carrying the ash towards the rest of Europe. The same thing happens fairly often along the chain of volcanoes in Alaska, but there isn't as much air traffic there.

Ash from an erupting volcano grounded all UK flights yesterday in the worst air travel chaos since the Second World War.

More than half a million travellers were stranded at airports in the first closure of our skies in living memory.

Thousands of Britons abroad have no way of getting home because of the air lockdown caused by the cloud of volcanic ash being blown south from Iceland.

And all flights were last night banned until at least 1pm today as experts warned chaos could go on for months.

The shutdown could cost the UK at least £300million a day, business chiefs said.

An estimated 4,000 flights were yesterday grounded across northern Europe by the huge ash plume from Mount Eyjafjallajokull, which was last night still erupting.

Experts warned more explosions were likely and British expert Prof Bill McGuire warned: “If the eruption continues and produces ash we could see disruption over six months.”

The giant plume also shut airspace in Scandinavia, Germany, Belgium, France and Ireland yesterday. In an “unprecedented” move Nats, the UK’s air traffic control service, closed skies at midday because of the danger the cloud posed to aircraft.

The shutdown echoed scenes in the US after the September 11 terror attacks.

The United States Federal Aviation Administration has reported delays in flights leaving the U.S., with flights that were due to cross Icelandic airspace grounded, RMS said.

Author Topic: Iceland Volcano blast (Read 3223 times)

Kudrat Kaur

Iceland Volcano blast

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