Air travel at risk as ash spreads

Air travel at risk as ash spreads

A PLUME of ash from an erupting volcano in Iceland is being blown south towards Britain and could reach the airspace over Europe later in the week, meteorological experts said yesterday.

Europe was on high alert as the billowing ash cloud drifted towards Scotland and threatened to shut down airports across the northern edge of the continent.

Two days into the Grimsvotn volcano's most powerful eruption in over a century, monitors said that ash particles from the volcano had been scattered across much of the North Atlantic island, whose airspace has been closed since Sunday.

Northern Europe looked set to be affected first, even though experts saw little chance of a repeat of last year's six-day travel chaos caused by the eruption of another Icelandic volcano which left thousands of people stranded across the region.

"It's too early to tell if Europe will be affected. What's certain is that when it is affected, there will be flight cancellations," French Transport Minister Thierry Marianai told Europe 1 radio.

Ash from the volcano was to touch north-western Scotland last evening, an Icelandic Met Office official said.

~News courtesy of My Paper~