Volcanic ash halts flights across Europe

Smoke billows from an erupting volcano which seems to be close to the top of the Eyjafjallajokull glacier on April 14, 2010 near Reykjavík. All London flights, including those from Heathrow, will be suspended from noon (1100 GMT) today due to volcanic ash from Iceland that has already caused almost 300 cancellations here, officials said.Photo: AFP

Ash clouds from Iceland's spewing volcano disrupted air traffic across Northern Europe yesterday as authorities closed British and Nordic air space, shut down Europe's busiest airport at Heathrow and cancelled hundreds of flights.
Britain's Civil Aviation Authority said non-emergency flights would be banned until at least 6 pm (1700 GMT, 1 pm EDT). Irish authorities also closed their air space for eight hours.
London Heathrow, Europe's business airport, handles upwards of 1,200 flights and 180,000 passengers per day. The closure also affected London's second- and third-largest airports, Gatwick and Stansted. It was not immediately clear when flights would resume.
With the major trans-Atlantic hub at Heathrow closed, dozens of flights to the United States were on hold, and cancellations spread across the continent to major hubs at Brussels, Amsterdam, Geneva and Paris, where flights heading north were cancelled until midnight.
In Iceland, hundreds of people have fled rising floodwaters since the volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH'-plah-yer-kuh-duhl) glacier erupted Wednesday for the second time in less than a month. As water gushed down the mountainside, rivers rose up to 10 feet (3 meters) by Wednesday night.
The ash cloud has not disrupted operations at Iceland's Keflavik airport or caused problems in the capital of Reykjavik, but has affected the south-eastern part of the island, said meteorologist Thorsteinn Jonsson. In one area, visibility was reduced to 150 yards (meters) this morning, he said, and farmers were advised to keep livestock indoors to protect them from eating ash particles as sharp as glass.
The volcano was sending up smoke and ash that posed "a significant safety threat to aircraft," Britain's National Air Traffic Service said, as visibility is compromised and debris can get sucked into airplane engines.
Emirates airline cancelled 10 roundtrip flights between Dubai and Britain on Thursday because of the ash cloud.
"I think I might cry," said Ann Cochrane, 58, of Toronto, one of the passengers stranded in Glasgow. "I just wish I was on a beach in Mexico."
In northern Sweden all air traffic was suspended, affecting the cities of Skelleftea, Lulea, Kiruna and Hemavan, the national aviation authority said.
Air traffic in northern Finland was also halted.
Norway's King Harald V and Queen Sonja who had planned to fly Thursday to Copenhagen for the Danish queen's 70th birthday were looking to take a "car, boat or train." A cancelled trans-Atlantic flight left Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg grounded in New York.