LONDON—Major airports across Northern Europe were shut down by a massive cloud of volcanic ash that drifted into Northern European airspace after the eruption of a volcano in Iceland. Half of all American transatlantic flights were canceled in the travel chaos on Thursday.
Airports in the U.K., Netherland, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, and West-Germany closed after air traffic control declared it unsafe to fly in what experts are calling the greatest flight disruption they have ever seen in the EU.
Tiny particles and rocks from volcanic ash can lodge in an aircraft’s engines and cause damage. In 1982, a British Airways aircraft had all of its four engines shut down when it flew through a cloud of volcanic ash. In 1989, the engines of a Royal Dutch KLM plane shut down when it flew through a volcano cloud above Mount Redoubt, Alaska. The pilot succeeded in restarting the engines and warded off a crash.
Experts say they cannot predict how long flights will be disrupted because of the plumes of smoke spewed by the Icelandic glacier Eyjafjallajökull.
“It all depends which way the wind blows—literally—and whether there is another volcanic eruption,” Richard Taylor, spokesman for Britain’s Civil Avation Authority was reported as saying by the Daily Mail.
Spokesperson of Icelandic aviation authorities, Hjördis Gudmundsdóttir, said only the weather gods know whether this will take a few days or perhaps a few years.
Thus far, the airport in Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, is functioning relatively smoothly.
All non-emergency flights in and out of the U.K.—the destination of the majority of American flights—were grounded until Friday morning local time (late Thursday night EDT) because of the danger of flying into the cloud of volcanic ash.
U.K. Air Traffic Control Service (NATS) officials had to extend the initial no-fly period after the cloud drifted southward.
The cloud is also expected to extend to the east affecting Poland, Czech Republic, and the Baltic states and possibly parts of Russia. France is expected to shut down its main airports on Friday.
“It is worse than the 9-11 terror attack. That stopped transatlantic air traffic. But even then, flights to the Continent and within the U.K. continued,” Richard Taylor, spokesman for Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority told the Daily Mail.
Airports in the U.K., Netherland, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, and West-Germany closed after air traffic control declared it unsafe to fly in what experts are calling the greatest flight disruption they have ever seen in the EU.
Tiny particles and rocks from volcanic ash can lodge in an aircraft’s engines and cause damage. In 1982, a British Airways aircraft had all of its four engines shut down when it flew through a cloud of volcanic ash. In 1989, the engines of a Royal Dutch KLM plane shut down when it flew through a volcano cloud above Mount Redoubt, Alaska. The pilot succeeded in restarting the engines and warded off a crash.
Experts say they cannot predict how long flights will be disrupted because of the plumes of smoke spewed by the Icelandic glacier Eyjafjallajökull.
“It all depends which way the wind blows—literally—and whether there is another volcanic eruption,” Richard Taylor, spokesman for Britain’s Civil Avation Authority was reported as saying by the Daily Mail.
Spokesperson of Icelandic aviation authorities, Hjördis Gudmundsdóttir, said only the weather gods know whether this will take a few days or perhaps a few years.
Thus far, the airport in Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, is functioning relatively smoothly.
All non-emergency flights in and out of the U.K.—the destination of the majority of American flights—were grounded until Friday morning local time (late Thursday night EDT) because of the danger of flying into the cloud of volcanic ash.
U.K. Air Traffic Control Service (NATS) officials had to extend the initial no-fly period after the cloud drifted southward.
The cloud is also expected to extend to the east affecting Poland, Czech Republic, and the Baltic states and possibly parts of Russia. France is expected to shut down its main airports on Friday.
“It is worse than the 9-11 terror attack. That stopped transatlantic air traffic. But even then, flights to the Continent and within the U.K. continued,” Richard Taylor, spokesman for Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority told the Daily Mail.
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