New Ash Cloud Threatens To Disrupt Air Travel Recovery

Airplanes slowly returned to the skies in Europe Tuesday, but the relief could prove to be temporary as a new ash cloud is said to be spreading from Iceland, threatening to keep significant parts of Europe's airspace closed.

While some European airports reopened Tuesday, London's airports remained closed due to the potential danger of the "invisible ash cloud," the AP reports.

Europe's air traffic agency, Eurocontrol, said up to 60 percent of flights over Europe would go ahead, according to the AP.

Still, an international pilots group warned that ash remains a danger and meteorologists say Iceland's still-erupting volcano isn't ready to rest yet, promising more choked airspace and flight delays to come.

Ash that had drifted over the North Sea from the volcano in southern Iceland was being pushed back over Britain on Tuesday by shifty north winds, Icelandic scientists said.

CNN reports that the eruption of the Icelandic volcano is now strengthening, "spewing a new cloud of ash that officials said was heading toward the United Kingdom."

Here's an AP video of the volcano, which continues to spew smoke and lava.

Comments

[shawn01]

06:08 AM on 05/03/2010

hi all,
I am real encourage with the mentation and don't search like adding anything in it.
=======================================
Shawn
Holidays

[robtheplumber]

09:09 PM on 04/20/2010

Being the highest point on the Mid-Atlantic plate boundry, Iceland is for all intents and porposes one big stinking volcano just waiting for an excuse. Past eruptions have covered Scotland, Ireland and large areas of Scandinavia with thick layers of dust.
If this spreads to Katla or any or some of the dozens of other nearby vents, you'd do well to stock up on canned goods.

[ResearchGuy]

05:22 PM on 04/20/2010

Wow! What a pain in the ash!

[tuckgraph]

05:11 PM on 04/20/2010

If this keeps up, we might have to cancel the war.

[paulacvdw]

04:51 PM on 04/20/2010

I read the airlines are now demanding bailouts for the disruptions, as are some passengers.
I don't know about you, but the last time I looked at nearly any contract, the exclusion most common was "except if it ocurred due to an act of God."

[skuffer]

04:19 PM on 04/20/2010

OMG, without international shipment and travel, we may actually have to manufacture and produce goods in this country.

[paulacvdw]

04:52 PM on 04/20/2010

vaccines would be a good start.

[Punisher703]

04:16 PM on 04/20/2010

It would not be even a little surprising to see one of these airlines lose a planeload of passengers trying to fly in that ash cloud when they were warned against it. The pressure of greed over concern for passenger safety grows with every passing day.

[manshands]

04:16 PM on 04/20/2010

There is an alternative to flying...ever hear of steamships? Like the kind that would sail into icebergs?

[Rafalsays]

05:14 PM on 04/20/2010

A silver lining.... due to our favorite pastime of polluting the air we breathe, there are few icebergs to sail into. I bet a tea bagger would call this progress.

[robtheplumber]

09:17 PM on 04/20/2010

Actually. quite the opposite. Global warming has resulted in acceleration of glacial calving in the northern hemisphere and increased seasonal breakouts of polar bergs.
In the south, ice sheets in Antarctica are breaking off resulting in icebergs the size of Rhode Island.

[wdw505]

08:17 AM on 04/22/2010

using steamships to sail anywhere is not called progress.

[cranelake]

04:12 PM on 04/20/2010

I bet this is the last place on earth those stranded tourists will want to visit...

http://blogs.nokia.com/ovimapsexplorer/north-america/the-worlds-only-volcano-hotel/

Even if they do have hot deals for rooms!

[sposton]

04:04 PM on 04/20/2010

Europeans wanted cash from Icelanders but they misunderstood and them ash instead. ;-)

[bnyb]

04:25 PM on 04/20/2010

Oh cheeky!
I can imagine Stewie Griffin laughing at that one. 'Oh I say ha! ha-ha. ha-ha-HA. Oh yes that was rather clever, wasn't it?'

[robtheplumber]

05:07 PM on 04/20/2010

probably just a typo-- haggens to me all the time

[sposton]

09:37 PM on 04/20/2010

Indeed, just like I've dropped "send" from my sentence. ;-)

[donbrown]

03:27 PM on 04/20/2010

I wonder if anyone has considered seeding he clouds over Europe to induce rain, whicjh would clear the skies...?

Or are there deleterious effects that would result from having heavy metals fall to earth, in streams and aquifers that would subject the seeders to law suits?

[RabidRightRebel]

02:24 PM on 04/20/2010

The Brits are waiting for a giant ash hole over London so that they can commence flying once again.

But I am pretty sure they are not talking about a visit from Beck or O'Reilly

[WHYNOT2]

02:42 PM on 04/20/2010

very clever. I guess we just have to keep the ash holes here. sigh

[Kat119]

03:16 PM on 04/20/2010

Gaia is in the beginning throes of purging homo sapiens as a evolutionary mistake--better luck next time.

[Kat119]

03:23 PM on 04/20/2010

Perhaps the Icelandic gods of the underworld would accept Greenspan, Rubins, Summers and Geithner to slake their thirst for Reptilians.

[hollybork]

02:24 PM on 04/20/2010

I find the volcanic eruption in Iceland strangely fascinating. I wonder about the earthquakes in China, Chile, California, Japan, Haiti and the Solomon Islands. I just watched the movie 2012, and it was mezmerizing. I cannot help myself when I drive by a fire, I have to stop and gape.

George Carlin said " Somehow I enjoy watching people suffer, things blowing up, sliding into the ocean."

[Kat119]

03:17 PM on 04/20/2010

Not sure we will make it to 2012....

[lulubeans]

03:22 PM on 04/20/2010

2012 mesmerizing? It was the worst movie ever made. The earth is molten lava and people are still texting each other. Remember Danny Glover's little dialogue before the tsunami overtook him? I was waiting for him to say "i'm coming to join ya honey", a la Fred Sanford. Did you happen to see the alternate ending? The geologist's father calls him on the mothership and he's like, "I made it son." Other than that, I'm totally into armageddon movies.

[AirViceMarshalPark]

02:19 PM on 04/20/2010

Why isn't anybody focused on the fact that the ash cloud is now over North America as well as Europe? St Johns, Newfoundland, started canceling flights two days ago and the cloud is slowly moving south.

[ManuOB1]

02:05 PM on 04/20/2010

Clearly if God wanted us to fly we would have been born with clothes on. Or something.

[ZiloRS]

05:16 PM on 04/20/2010

If there were a God. But clearly we are capable of doing it (well creating the machines anyway) so why not? Sometimes you can do things, and sometimes Mother Nature decides you won't. That's why learning to adapt to different situations is probably the most important thing any human being can learn.