Extent of Iceland volcano ash cloud
The eruption in Iceland on Wednesday sent ash kilometres into the air. Satellite images show the cloud as brownish-black as ice particles mingle with ash.
People in the Eyjafjallajoekull area were evacuated, but the spread of the ash cloud raised concerns for air traffic controllers in nearby countries.
By 1800GMT, the whole of the UK is expected to be affected and the Air Traffic Control Service (Nats) has banned flights from UK airspace.
Meteorologists say that as the cloud spreads it will dissipate and lose intensity - but as the eruption continues, so does the ash cloud.
The situation is not expected to improve overnight as the ash cloud spreads. It is unclear when flights will be allowed to resume.
**The European air traffic control organisation has said flights could be disrupted for another 48 hours by ash spewing from a volcano in Iceland.**Eurocontrol spokesman Brian Flynn said a lack of wind in the area meant the ash cloud was “progressing very slowly eastwards” and remained “very dense”.
Up to 5,000 flights could have been affected by the end of Thursday.
Planes have been grounded in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland.
France is also preparing to close its main airports.
The UK closed its entire airspace to all but emergency flights because of the risk of the ash damaging planes’ engines. The restrictions are not expected to be lifted before 0700 (0600 GMT) on Friday at the earliest.
‘Foreseeable future’
Eurocontrol, which covers 38 nations across Europe, said the ash ejected by the volcano underneath the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier in Iceland would continue to move in a south-easterly direction.
Based on the guidelines of the International Civil Aviation Organisation, normal air traffic control services could not be provided to flights in airspaces affected by volcanic ash, requiring the temporary suspension of air traffic, it added.
Experts have warned that the tiny particles of rock, glass and sand contained in the ash cloud could be sufficient to jam aircraft engines.
Mr Flynn, Eurocontrol’s assistant head of operations, said the extent of the disruption was “greater than we’ve ever seen before in the EU” and warned that the problem could persist for a further 48 hours.
“The meteorological situation is such that the volcanic ash is progressing very slowly eastwards but there is not a lot of wind… so it is very slow and very dense,” he told the Reuters news agency.
A spokesman for the UK’s National Air Traffic Service (Nats) said its airspace restriction was the worst in living memory, and that it was “very unlikely that the situation over England will improve in the foreseeable future”.
The restrictions silenced Heathrow airport, the world’s second busiest, and stranded tens of thousands of passengers around the world.
Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands all later shut down their airspace entirely, while there was also major disruption in Finland, France, Germany and Spain.
Tim Farish, who had been planning to fly from Oslo to London on business, told the BBC he had been told by the airline SAS to stay at home and not bother calling for updates.
“We can actually smell sulphur in the air here now from the volcano cloud,” he told the BBC from his home in the Norwegian capital.
“This could last for a few days apparently, so all I can do, like anyone else, is sit and wait.”
‘Days or weeks’
The volcano beneath the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier began erupting on Wednesday for the second time in a month, hurling a plume of ash 11km (seven miles) into the atmosphere. By the time it reached the northern UK, it had risen to 16km.
Witnesses said two flows of floodwater had started coming off the glacier on Wednesday, and that a road along the flooded Markarfljot river had been cut in several places. As many as 800 people were evacuated from their homes.
On Thursday, the flooding was reported to have subsided, but the volcano was still producing ash that was being blown towards Europe.
“It is likely that the production of ash will continue at a comparable level for some days or weeks. But where it disrupts travel, that depends on the weather,” Einar Kjartansson, a geophysicist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, told the Associated Press.
“It depends how the wind carries the ash.”
The last volcanic eruption beneath the glacier was on 20 March. The eruption before that started in 1821 - and continued for two years.
Iceland lies on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the highly volatile boundary between the Eurasian and North American continental plates.
Have you been affected by the volcanic eruption in Iceland or by disruptions to air traffic caused by volcanic ash? Send us your experiences Click here to add comments..
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.