Volcanic ash paralyses the skies over Europe!

[v2]

Hundreds of thousands of air passengers were delayed and fresh agony was caused to an industry reeling from financial and industrial strife when a huge cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland hung over northern Europe yesterday.
Britain's airports closed their runways because of the danger that jet engines would be shredded by particles of ash thrown up by Mount Eyjafjallajoekull. As the cloud threw a shadow over commercial aviation, air traffic controllers cancelled more than 3,000 flights, disrupting 371,000 passengers.
After appeals in the media not to set off for check-in, most travellers did not go to airports, but last night thousands were bunkered down in hotels or airport terminals waiting for travel to resume. They may have to wait a while.

 

[Pong]

They may have to wait a while.

Probably a very long while.

I think cruise liners will be crowded as there will be no air transport for a few weeks (Or even worse, a month or two. )

There'll probably be a drop in temperatures in a few months. I once heard when Mount Pinatubo erupted, temperatures around the world dropped.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

What havoc it's creating and from the news this evening, it's still spewing ash up to 8K high. The after effects could last a while.

 

[RabidAlien]

Dang.

 

[Clave]

Everything is grounded..

BBC News - Iceland volcano: UK flights grounded for second day

 

[Wayne Little]

Amazing scenes.....

 

[Wurger]

Yep... The Polish Air Navigation Service Agency closed the northern part of FIR Warsaw yesterday in the evening.All planes had to be grounded as well.

 

[timshatz]

Mother and Father in Law were scheduled to come out of Malpensa to Philadelphia this morning. Now headed for Charllotte (as we speak). Heathrow, busiest airport in Europe, is shut down. Estimates are for losses exceeding 1 billion if the stoppage goes into tomorrow.

Mother nature doesn't screw around, does she.

 

[Airframes]

The UK Air Traffic system (NATS) has extended the no-fly restriction until Saturday, and the Met Office have predicted ash deposits spreading south. So far, I haven't noticed any where I lve, and it's high ground here.

 

[Vassili Zaitzev]

Damn.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

The ash clowd is expected to reach us around 1800 this afternoon. They are also issueing health warnings because of the falling ash.

 

[Vassili Zaitzev]

Might not be that much of a danger, but stay safe, all of our European members.

 

[Gnomey]

They started opening up the airports in Scotland this afternoon with the runways nominally being fully operational from around 1800GMT (1900BST). Still it is chaos, my brother is down in London ATM and isn't flying back until Monday but is already looking for alternative transport to come back up again.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

The airports here are all still closed. They are saying that the ash is supposed to start coming down in the early morning hours tomorrow.

 

[timshatz]

Almost has the same feel as a big snow storm. "When does it hit and how long is it going to last?" deal.

 

[ToughOmbre]

Never underestimate the power of the natural world!

TO

 

[vikingBerserker]

That's amazing.

 

[Airframes]

Hmm. I wonder if this ash is good as a weathering powder for modellers? Could have a business opportunity here..........

 

[Matt308]

Now that's workin' the ole bean, Airframes! See capitalism is not dead.

 

[36feet10inches]

I have been in London last couple of days and it has been crazy. In west London, where normally you have one airliner after another coming in on the approach to Heathrow, it has been eerily quiet. St. Pancras station (Eurostar terminal) was packed with continentals trying to get home on the train. All tickets sold. Hotels are having a huge windfall (pardon the pun) from enforced stays. And my train back home was jammed as people who would normally fly up to Scotland on a Friday took the train instead.

It's been a beautiful evening and I walked the dogs earlier (I live in some nice countryside). The only thing in the sky was the sun, it was just pure blue. It felt very, very strange, like looking at the sky as it would have been before the invention of flight. I almost don't want the vapour trails to reappear.

I'm flying to Bulgaria on Tuesday - hopefully!!!