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Post by justjohn on Apr 15, 2010 5:09:17 GMT -7
BBC NEWS North Europe hit by volcanic ash Flights have been disrupted across northern Europe by volcanic ash drifting south and east from Iceland. Airspace was closed or flights cancelled in countries including the UK, the Republic of Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. The ash, which can damage aeroplane engines, was produced by a volcanic eruption under a glacier in Iceland. Flooding was reported as the glacier melted, and up to 800 people were evacuated from the area on Wednesday. Eyewitnesses and local officials said there were two flows of flood water coming off the glacier in south-western Iceland, and that a road along the flooded Markarfljot river had been cut in several places. By Thursday morning, the disruption to air traffic stretched from the UK to Scandinavia. 'Large floods' Oslo airport, which is Norway's largest, was closed, while Finland's airport agency Finavia said air traffic to northern Sweden and northern Finland was also affected. "Flights will be cancelled probably all day with the current prognosis," said Jo Kobro, information manager at Oslo Airport. "Then we have to wait and see what the new weather forecasts will say about the wind direction, and if we are lucky the volcano diminishes in strength." In Denmark, officials said airspace would be closed from 1800 (1600 GMT). The Air Traffic Control Service (Nats) said no flights would be allowed in or out of UK airspace from midday to 1800BST (1100-1700 GMT) amid fears of engine damage. Airports in Scotland had already been shut earlier on Thursday and flights at several English airports had been suspended. There were also reports that flights were being cancelled or airspace closed in Ireland, the Netherlands, France and Spain. The last volcanic eruption at the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier was on 20 March - the first since 1821 - and it forced about 500 people in the sparsely populated area from their homes. Iceland lies on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the highly volatile boundary between the Eurasian and North American continental plates. A group of Norweigians including the ambassador who were camping near the volcano were among those expecting to be evacuated late on Wednesday. "There are large floods on both sides of the volcano, and the road in (to where they are) is blocked and the whole area is isolated due to the floods," said Per Landroe, a spokesman for the Norwegian embassy. "There are fears that a large bridge will break," he told AFP. Story from BBC NEWS: news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/8621581.stm
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Post by kaima on Apr 15, 2010 8:19:39 GMT -7
I see headlines that Britain has now diverted flights as well. That makes me feel less lonesome, since we live 75 miles from the closest of a string of volcanoes, and we do have diversions every few years.
Kai the Gritty PS. The paly with adding these silly 'definitions' after my name is from the now-obscure books for boys series of 'Tom Swift". The series was published in the 1930's and then updated in the 1950's. In that book they added a variety of 'modifiers' or 'definitions' after statements by characters, and these became known as Tom Swifties, if I remember rightly.
It is fun to do, he said laughingly.
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Post by Nictoshek on Apr 15, 2010 17:21:46 GMT -7
This is what worries me the most with regards to these recent events: Cayce's Prophecies for the Future : The so-called endtime and earthchanges will start with the great shaking of South America and the eruption of a volcano in Iceland !!! Volcanic activity will proceed major earthquakes If there are greater activities in (the volcanoes) on Iceland, Vesuvius or Pelee, then the southern coast of California and the areas between Salt Lake and the southern portions of Nevada, we may expect, within the three months following same, inundation by the earthquakes. But these are to be more in the Southern than the Northern Hemisphere." www.alamongordo.com/edgar_cayce_2010_prophecies_2011_predictions_2012_visions.html
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Post by Jaga on Apr 15, 2010 18:11:55 GMT -7
I hope this would not last long. I wonder whether this would disrupt the respectable list of presidents who were going to visit Kaczynski's funeral
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Post by kaima on Apr 15, 2010 22:23:03 GMT -7
This is what worries me the most with regards to these recent events: Cayce's Prophecies for the Future : The so-called endtime and earthchanges will start with the great shaking of South America and the eruption of a volcano in Iceland !!! Why worry? Have you claimed to be Christian in the past? Are not looking forward to the end times, or at least your personal ascension into heaven? Be happy! If it comes in our lifetimes (which I doubt; that is awfully egotistical of us to think it may) I hope I live through most of it to see what it is all about. Then I will take what comes. Isn't the whole Fundamental Christian support for Israel based on having that state established so the End Times can come? Kai
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Post by kaima on Apr 15, 2010 22:26:20 GMT -7
I hope this would not last long. I wonder whether this would disrupt the respectable list of presidents who were going to visit Kaczynski's funeral That can sure be a major problem, Jaga. I hope they work it out somehow, but direct flights may be out and heads of state are not too accustomed to diversions. I do hope the Poles change their minds and bury the guy somewhere else. Kai
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Post by Nictoshek on Apr 16, 2010 2:56:04 GMT -7
Heard they just shut down Krakow airport with more to follow. www.gazeta.pl/0,0.html?utm_source=portal&utm_medium=AutopromoLogo&utm_campaign=logotyp
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Post by justjohn on Apr 16, 2010 3:41:47 GMT -7
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Post by kaima on Apr 16, 2010 19:12:23 GMT -7
Hundreds of thousands of travelers are stranded and thousands of flights have been cancelled Friday after a volcanic ash plume from Iceland caused the closures of airports all over Europe. A funeral planned on Sunday for Polish President Lech Kaczynski may also have to be delayed.
The air traffic chaos in Europe caused by the eruption of a volcano beneath Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull glacier disrupted the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers on Friday and also threatened to delay the planned funeral of Polish President Lech Kaczysnki, who died along with a number of other senior politicians from the country in a plane crash last Saturday.
The flight safety authority Eurocontol, which coordinates flights between different European airspaces, said that 60 percent of all flights in Europe were cancelled. The agency expects the ash plume to continue to paralyze European air traffic at least into Saturday. Twelve European countries closed all or part of their airspace, including the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
Although a number of Scandinavian countries, including Sweden, have begun to reopen airports and airspaces, the ash plume is now affecting air travel further to the south. In Germany, the country's largest airport, Frankfurt International, closed on Friday along with numerous other major airports including those in Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Berlin, Cologne, Hanover, Bremen, Münster, Leipzig, Erfurt, Dresden and Saarbrücken.
Officials in Austria said they planned to close their airspace on Friday afternoon, and Poland has already closed some parts of its airspace. Currently, the only airports open in the country are those in Krakow and Rzeszow in the southern part of Poland, a spokesperson for the aviation authority in Warsaw said.
Funeral Delay?
It's possible that the massive disruptions to air traffic will also lead to a delay in the funeral of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, who were killed when their government plane crashed near the Russian city of Smolensk. A delay is a "serious option," the office of the Polish president said in a statement. On Sunday morning, more than 80 foreign planes are expected with leading politicians, including US President Barack Obama and Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev.
Obama's planned flight to Poland over the weekend could be disrupted, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel already experienced the effects of Eyjafjallajökull during her return flight to Germany from a short trip to the United States. Her flight (the chancellor is currently en route to Europe) was originally scheduled to land at Berlin's Tegel Airport at 3:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon, but the airport remains closed. "We will change her flight route if it is deemed important for flight safety," a spokesman for Merkel said.
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Post by RabiaMuweis on Apr 17, 2010 5:55:10 GMT -7
The volcano in southern Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull glacier sends ash into the air just prior to sunset Friday, April 16, 2010. (AP)LONDON (AP) – Thick drifts of volcanic ash blanketed parts of rural Iceland as a vast, invisible plume of grit drifted over Europe, emptying the skies of planes and sending hundreds of thousands in search of hotel rooms, train tickets or rental cars. Polish officials worried Friday that the ash cloud could threaten the arrival of world leaders for Sunday's state funeral for President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria in the southern city of Krakow. So far, President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are among those coming and no one has canceled. Kaczynski's family insisted Friday they wanted the funeral to go forward as planned but there was no denying the ash cloud was moving south and east. The air traffic agency Eurocontrol said almost two-thirds of Europe's flights were canceled Friday, as air space remained largely closed in Britain and across large chunks of north and central Europe The skies are totally empty over northern Europe," said Brian Flynn, deputy head of Eurocontrol, adding "there will be some significant disruption of European air traffic tomorrow." The agency said about 16,000 of Europe's usual 28,000 daily flights were canceled Friday — twice as many as were canceled a day earlier. U.S. airlines canceled 280 of the more than 330 trans-Atlantic flights of a normal day, and about 60 flights between Asia and Europe were canceled. The International Air Transport Association said the volcano was costing the industry at least $200 million a day. Southern Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH'-plah-yer-kuh-duhl) volcano began erupting for the second time in a month on Wednesday, sending ash several miles (kilometers) into the air. Winds pushed the plume south and east across Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia and into the heart of Europe. Gray ash settled in drifts near the glacier, swirling in the air and turning day into night. Authorities told people in the area with respiratory problems to stay indoors, and advised everyone to wear masks and protective goggles outside. In major European cities, travel chaos reigned. Extra trains were put on in Amsterdam and lines to buy train tickets were so long that the rail company handed out free coffee Train operator Eurostar said it was carrying almost 50,000 passengers between London, Paris and Brussels. Thalys, a high-speed venture of the French, Belgian and German rail companies, was allowing passengers to buy tickets even if trains were fully booked. Ferry operators in Britain received a flurry of bookings from people desperate to cross the English Channel to France, while London taxi company Addison Lee said it had received requests for journeys to cities as far away as Paris, Milan, Amsterdam and Zurich. The disruptions hit tourists, business travelers and dignitaries alike. German Chancellor Angela Merkel had to go to Portugal rather than Berlin as she flew home from a U.S. visit. Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg managed to get a flight to Madrid from New York but was still not sure when or how he would get back home. The military also had to adjust. Five German soldiers wounded in Afghanistan were diverted to Turkey instead of Germany, while U.S. medical evacuations for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are being flown directly from the warfronts to Washington rather than to a care facility in Germany. The U.S. military has also stopped using temporarily closed air bases in the U.K. and Germany. Aviation experts said it was among the worst disruptions Europe has ever seen. "We don't have many volcanoes in Europe," said David Learmount of Flight International, an aviation publication. "The wind was blowing in the wrong direction." [/img]http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/253159/flight-disruptions-europe-get-even-worse
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Post by Jaga on Apr 17, 2010 8:25:33 GMT -7
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Post by kaima on Apr 17, 2010 9:26:18 GMT -7
If this volcano runs off and on for a year, as it has in the past, I may have to worry about it in mid July when I am to fly to Slovakia to complete my language course.
We live in interesting times!
Kai
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Post by Jaga on Apr 17, 2010 11:40:03 GMT -7
the same here. We are planning to fly with Ela to Lithuania at the end of June!
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Post by Eric on Apr 17, 2010 12:27:51 GMT -7
the same here. We are planning to fly with Ela to Lithuania at the end of June! Where will you be in Lithuania? Have you been there before?
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Post by Nictoshek on Apr 17, 2010 16:25:49 GMT -7
We live in interesting times! Kai Now thats an understatement.
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