Icelandic volcano cancels European flights

A volcanic eruption on the south coast of Iceland on April 14, 2010, caused a massive cancellation of commercial flights throughout areas of Europe including Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Ireland, the U.K., Germany, Holland, and parts of France on Thursday, April 15.

It was the second time that the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, had erupted in 2010. An earlier, much less severe incident occurred on March 20. The current event, which began yesterday, threw ash from the center of a crater located on a glacier several miles into the atmosphere, where prevailing winds aloft carried the fine volcanic particles eastward over Europe.

In Iceland itself, the coastal ring road around the island nation, was closed due to ice cap melt water flooding, and more than 800 persons had to be evacuated.

CAPTIONS: (ABOVE LEFT) In this image made available by the Icelandic Coastguard taken Wednesday April 14, 2010, smoke and steam rises from the volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland, which erupted for the second time in less than a month, melting ice, shooting smoke and steam into the air and forcing hundreds of people to flee rising floodwaters. .(AP Photo/Icelandic Coastguard, ho); (BELOW RIGHT) A flight departure information screen shows cancellations at Luton Airport in Luton, England Thursday, April 15, 2010.  (AP Photo/Matt Dunham);  (BELOW LEFT) United States Geological Survey photo of 1982 eruption of Galungung (with lightning strikes). Cropped. This stratovolcano with a lava dome is located in western Java. Its first eruption in 1822 produced a 22-km-long mudflow that killed 4,000 people. The second eruption in 1894 caused extensive property loss. The slide depicts a spectacular view of lightning strikes during a third eruption on December 3, 1982, which resulted in 68 deaths. A fourth eruption occurred in 1984. (R. Hadian, U.S. Geological Survey); (BELOW RIGHT BOTTOM) Map of Iceland (Wikipedia/Common Usage - Public Domain)

A slide show and Associated Press video follow this article.

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The effects of the eruption in Europe were much more severe, affecting an estimated 600,000 travelers, and cancelling over 5,000 flights. Flights from the United States to many European destinations were also cancelled.

Volcanic ash can have a devastating toxic affect on jet engines. On June 24, 1982 a Boeing 747 jumbo jet operated by British Airways as BA flight 9, the City of Edinburgh, flew into a volcanic ash cloud over Indonesia, thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung, and lost power on all four engines when each one flamed out. The crew, under captain Eric Moody, was able to glide without power out of the ash plume, from an initial altitude of 36,000 feet. Without jet thrust, the aircraft had the ability to glide for 23 minutes, and cover up to 91 nautical miles (169 km).

During the BA flight 9 incident, the British captain made the following announcement to his passengers, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damndest to get them under control. I trust you are not in too much distress." This understatement concealed the terrifying nature of the event, during which many of the passengers wrote farewell letters to loved ones.

At at altitude of 13,500 feet, the crew was able to restart one engine, and shortly afterwards, a second engine was returned to service. At the time of the incident, there was no connection between the dangers of volcanic eruptions to aircraft operations. Nineteen days later a Singapore Airlines 747 encountered similar problems and was forced to shut down three of its engines. That second incident caused the Indonesian government to close the airspace over Mount Galunggung.

These previous aircraft incidents help to explain the massive flight disruptions caused by yesterday's volcanic eruption in Iceland. As yet, there have been no indication as to when flights to and from these European destinations will resume.

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