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BBC MUNDO RADIO
Updated: 24 minutes ago
LONDON (April 16) -- A huge cloud of ash thrown up by an Icelandic volcano covered half of Europe today, causing the largest disruption of air travel since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Aviation authorities across the world have been forced to ground thousands of planes -- including some U.S. Air Force flights -- for a second day, leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded.
In Iceland the continuing eruption has triggered more flooding in areas near the volcano, which sits under the southern Eyjafjallajokull glacier. Some 700 people were evacuated today from their isolated rural homes, the second such evacuation in less than 48 hours, as parts of the glacier melted, sending waves of water down mountainsides, sweeping away roads and swelling rivers by up to 10 feet.
An estimated 17,000 flights were grounded today, up from 6,000 on Thursday, as the plume -- which can cause aircraft engines to block up and sputter out -- spread across European airspace. Many of the continent's major airports, including London's Heathrow and Frankfurt, were shut down.
"I would think Europe was probably experiencing its greatest disruption to air travel since 9/11," a spokesman for the U.K.'s Civil Aviation Authority told Reuters. "In terms of closure of airspace, this is worse than after 9/11."
With most of its airspace still closed, Poland said it might be forced to delay the funeral of President Lech Kaczynski on Sunday -- due to be attended by dozens of world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama. However, the president's family today urged that his state funeral be held this weekend in Krakow as planned.
"It is the will of the family that, under no circumstance, the date of the funeral be changed," presidential aide Jacek Sasin said on the family's behalf. Kaczynski, his wife, Maria Kaczynska, and 94 other people were killed Saturday when their jet crashed in thick fog in western Russia while taking the delegation to a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre in World War II.
And the ash cloud continued to cause problems far beyond the continent. The dust plume has blocked the main flight path between Europe and North America, forcing the cancellation of half of all trans-Atlantic flights. Among those stranded in New York was Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. While trying to return home from this week's nuclear summit, he was running his Nordic nation with help from his new iPad, his press secretary told CNN. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's plane home, meanwhile, was diverted via Portugal. She won't get back to Berlin until Saturday, Bloomberg news noted, as her flight crew will spend the rest of today resting.
The Christian Science Monitor also reported that the closure of U.K. air space has affected some U.S. Air Force operations in support of Iraq and Afghanistan, which fly out of two bases in England. Dozens of fighter jets and tankers stationed there have been grounded until the skies clear.
But the disruption in some countries eased as the plume slowly blew east. Irish authorities reopened Dublin and Cork airports today, and some planes were being permitted to touch down at Paris's three airports. Airports in the far north of Sweden and Norway also were reopened, although Stockholm and Oslo stayed shut.
How long the plume will continue to cause travel chaos is unknown. Icelandic experts said the volcano below Eyjafjallajokull (pronounced ay-yah-FYAH'-plah-yer-kuh-duhl, and which roughly translates as "glacier on the mountain overlooking the islands") continued to push out ash and lava today, a month after it began erupting. "It is more or less the same situation as yesterday; it is still erupting, still exploding, still producing gas," University of Iceland professor Armann Hoskuldsson told Reuters. "We expect it to last for two days or more or something. It cannot continue at this rate for many days. There is a limited amount of magma that can spew out."
However, Bill Burton, associate director of the U.S. Geological Survey's volcano hazards program, warned in The New York Times that the current eruption bore striking similarities to the last explosion in 1821, which continued for two years. "We seem to be reprising that episode again," he said. "So if the other eruption lasted for two years, this one might, as well."
While the eruption's disruptive effect on air travel is likely to decrease, Richard Wunderman -- a volcanologist with the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program -- told the paper, it could alter weather in northern Europe. The volcanic cloud is loaded with sulfur, he said, "that can become an aerosol up there that hangs around a long time reflecting sunlight." Wunderman added that "it's not enough that it's probably going to be cooling the whole climate," but it could create regional "volcano weather," with smoglike conditions.
In Iceland the continuing eruption has triggered more flooding in areas near the volcano, which sits under the southern Eyjafjallajokull glacier. Some 700 people were evacuated today from their isolated rural homes, the second such evacuation in less than 48 hours, as parts of the glacier melted, sending waves of water down mountainsides, sweeping away roads and swelling rivers by up to 10 feet.
Torsten Silz, AFP / Getty Images
6 photos Would-be fliers crowd a railway ticket desk Friday in Frankfurt, Germany, after ash from an Icelandic volcano forced the closure of major airports in Europe. Thousands of flights were grounded in the biggest air travel disruption since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
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Disruptive Eruption
Would-be fliers crowd a railway ticket desk Friday in Frankfurt, Germany, after ash from an Icelandic volcano forced the closure of major airports in Europe. Thousands of flights were grounded in the biggest air travel disruption since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Torsten Silz, AFP / Getty Images
Torsten Silz, AFP / Getty Images
"I would think Europe was probably experiencing its greatest disruption to air travel since 9/11," a spokesman for the U.K.'s Civil Aviation Authority told Reuters. "In terms of closure of airspace, this is worse than after 9/11."
With most of its airspace still closed, Poland said it might be forced to delay the funeral of President Lech Kaczynski on Sunday -- due to be attended by dozens of world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama. However, the president's family today urged that his state funeral be held this weekend in Krakow as planned.
"It is the will of the family that, under no circumstance, the date of the funeral be changed," presidential aide Jacek Sasin said on the family's behalf. Kaczynski, his wife, Maria Kaczynska, and 94 other people were killed Saturday when their jet crashed in thick fog in western Russia while taking the delegation to a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre in World War II.
And the ash cloud continued to cause problems far beyond the continent. The dust plume has blocked the main flight path between Europe and North America, forcing the cancellation of half of all trans-Atlantic flights. Among those stranded in New York was Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. While trying to return home from this week's nuclear summit, he was running his Nordic nation with help from his new iPad, his press secretary told CNN. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's plane home, meanwhile, was diverted via Portugal. She won't get back to Berlin until Saturday, Bloomberg news noted, as her flight crew will spend the rest of today resting.
The Christian Science Monitor also reported that the closure of U.K. air space has affected some U.S. Air Force operations in support of Iraq and Afghanistan, which fly out of two bases in England. Dozens of fighter jets and tankers stationed there have been grounded until the skies clear.
But the disruption in some countries eased as the plume slowly blew east. Irish authorities reopened Dublin and Cork airports today, and some planes were being permitted to touch down at Paris's three airports. Airports in the far north of Sweden and Norway also were reopened, although Stockholm and Oslo stayed shut.
How long the plume will continue to cause travel chaos is unknown. Icelandic experts said the volcano below Eyjafjallajokull (pronounced ay-yah-FYAH'-plah-yer-kuh-duhl, and which roughly translates as "glacier on the mountain overlooking the islands") continued to push out ash and lava today, a month after it began erupting. "It is more or less the same situation as yesterday; it is still erupting, still exploding, still producing gas," University of Iceland professor Armann Hoskuldsson told Reuters. "We expect it to last for two days or more or something. It cannot continue at this rate for many days. There is a limited amount of magma that can spew out."
However, Bill Burton, associate director of the U.S. Geological Survey's volcano hazards program, warned in The New York Times that the current eruption bore striking similarities to the last explosion in 1821, which continued for two years. "We seem to be reprising that episode again," he said. "So if the other eruption lasted for two years, this one might, as well."
While the eruption's disruptive effect on air travel is likely to decrease, Richard Wunderman -- a volcanologist with the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program -- told the paper, it could alter weather in northern Europe. The volcanic cloud is loaded with sulfur, he said, "that can become an aerosol up there that hangs around a long time reflecting sunlight." Wunderman added that "it's not enough that it's probably going to be cooling the whole climate," but it could create regional "volcano weather," with smoglike conditions.
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