This is just the beginning...This has caused flights to be cancalled throughout Europe. Smells like sulphur here. Paste the link if you don't receive the images/can't access the links.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/7593739/Volcanic-ash-all-flights-over-Britain-cancelled-until-tomorrow.html
And this;
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/world/europe/16ash.html
Volcanic Ash Closes Down Air Traffic in North Europe
An aerial photo shows smoke rising from the volcano under a glacier in the Eyjafjallajokull region of Iceland on Wednesday.
By NICOLA CLARK and JULIA WERDIGIER
Published: April 15, 2010
Be Well.
David
Volcanic ash: all flights over Britain cancelled until tomorrow
All non-emergency flights in British airspace will be grounded until at least 7am on Friday after a volcanic ash cloud turned the country into a no-fly zone for the first time in modern history.
Tens of thousands of passengers have been left stranded as hundreds of flights were cancelled and airports shut down throughout the day.
Air traffic controllers will decide tonight whether to authorise the lifting of the restrictions tomorrow morning. The dust spewed out by the Eyjafjallajökull volcano and trapped in the air above Britain is capable of bringing down aircraft by clogging up their engines.
Ash can also be sucked into the cabin itself, contaminating the passengers' environment as well as damaging the plane's electronic systems.
The vast cloud of ash extends across Britain and northeastern Europe. Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Belgium have all seen large numbers of flights cancelled.
The Met Office said it was constantly monitoring the ash cloud but that the north westerly winds were due to continue, pushing the plume of particles further south.
- The volcanic ash is likely to result in some spectacular sunsets - send your pictures to www.telegraph.co.uk/mypics
Forecasters believe the ash could take a number of days to disperse.
The disruption could go on for some time," said Dr Steve Bond, lecturer in aircraft operations at City University London. "It depends on how long the eruption goes on for and weather conditions.
"When there was an eruption over Java in 1982 an aircraft ran into difficulties 19 days after a British Airways plane had problems.
"There is a risk of engine failure because of the ash. The problem with aircraft radar is that it is designed to pick up clouds of moisture and it won't detect ash.
"This is why you have to take precautions and keep aircraft out of the area.
"Even if in a best case scenario it clears after one day, there will still be disruption because aircraft will be in the wrong place and crew will be in the wrong place. There will also be a backlog of passengers to clear."
Meanwhile British Airways said passengers whose flights had been cancelled because of the ash could rebook at a another date or claim a refund.
Matt Dobson, a forecaster for MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "The concern is that as well as the eruption, the jet stream passing through Iceland is passing in a south easterly direction, which will bring ash to the north of Scotland and Denmark and Norway. But it is impossible to say how much ash will come down.
"It could be a threat in these areas from now until tomorrow or Friday."
A spokesman from Nats said: "The Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre has issued a forecast that the ash cloud from the volcanic eruption in Iceland will track over Europe tonight.
"NATS is working with Eurocontrol and our colleagues in Europe's other air navigation service providers to take the appropriate action to ensure safety in accordance with international aviation policy."
Weather forecasters said the ash plume could drift over British airspace during the night, causing significant disruption to services.
The movement of the plume, which has been drifting eastwards, is being monitored by both the Met Office and NATS, the air traffic control service.
There have been a number of incidents where aircraft have reported damage from ash, including one involving a British Airways Boeing 747 in June 1982.
The aircraft ran into difficulties after the eruption of a volcano at Galunggung, Indonesia. Ash jammed all four engines briefly, and the aircraft plummeted 24,000 feet before they could be restarted.
Because of the threat to aviation, a global early warning system, known as the International Airways Volcano Watch, has been established. Iceland is considered as particularly vulnerable to volcanic disruption.
Authorities there yesterday evacuated 800 residents from around the Eyjafjallajokull glacier as water gushed down the mountainside and rivers rose by up to 10 feet (3 meters).
The Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted for the first time in 200 years on March 20, in a dramatic display that sent fountains of lava spewing into the air.
The first eruption did not trigger any major flooding, as was initially feared, because the active vents were in a mainly ice-free part of the volcano.
But Tuesday's eruption came from a different vent beneath a 650-ft (200m) thick block of ice, unleashing a torrent of glacial meltwater.
An estimated 80,000 passengers were due to fly to and from Gatwick today, but thousands were stranded in the terminal buildings after 511 out of 679 planned flights were cancelled. Wendy Tinsley, 62, retired, from Kent, was due to fly to Belfast. She said: "The real problem is that nobody has told us what is going on, or what we should be doing.
"I don't blame them for the volcano at all, but they could be more organised and better at telling us what is happening.
"I didn't know my flight was cancelled until ten minutes before departure. I was already at the gate, and all ready to board."
A spokeswoman for Gatwick airport said: "We're constantly updating the message boards in the terminals, and there is up-to-date information on our website. We've also put extra staff on the ground to help passengers.
"Passengers can also follow us on Twitter to get the latest updates."
But Ragnhild Svinning, 58, from Trondheim, Norway, said: "They keep on saying we should check online for more information, but it's impossible to access the internet here.
"I don't have an iPhone, and there are are massive queues of people trying to use the computers. The message boards in the terminal don't tell you anything useful, and it feels like the staff at the desks don't know anything at all.
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