A huge plume of volcanic ash sweeping in from Iceland forced the complete closure of British and Irish air space and disrupted flights across Northern Europe Thursday.
Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority ordered the grounding of all flights in the UK from noon to 6 p.m. (7 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET), due to the safety risk posed by ash to aircraft engines.
“The decision to extend this time will be made depending on the way the ashes move,” a spokesman said.
The Irish Aviation Authority said it will also close sections of Irish airspace starting at noon (7 a.m. ET), a move that will temporarily close Dublin Airport.
Many airports were already shut and flights were grounded across the United Kingdom on Thursday because of the ash, which came after an eruption under an Icelandic glacier early Wednesday, airport authorities said.
The ash cloud came from an eruption of a volcano beneath Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull glacier early Wednesday.
The eruption — the latest in a series that began on March 20 — blew a hole in the mass of ice and created a cloud of smoke and ash that went high into the air.
(Read More: CNN)
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3 Responses
my parents left EY this morning on an El Al flight from Tel Aviv to London and were sent back half way due to the weather 6 hours flight to go from Tel Aviv to Tel Aviv!!! andno compensation since it is an “act of GD”
volcano eruptions, earth quakes, tsunami’s….what else is next???
The UK has not been very nice lately. Hopefully this is all the lesson they need to “rethink” their madness.