EU: Volcanic cloud affect British, Irish airspace

[May 23, 2011]  BRUSSELS (AP) -- The European Union says ash from an Icelandic volcano could soon affect the airspace over Britain and Ireland. It was not immediately clear whether flights to and from affected areas would be disrupted.

The EU says the ash could enter British and Irish airspace Monday or Tuesday. Spokeswoman Helen Kearns noted that differences in the nature and size of the ash cloud meant that "we are far from where we were a year ago," when an Icelandic volcanic disrupted much of the air traffic over Europe.

The ash plume was unlikely to affect President Barack Obama's visit to Europe. He arrived in Ireland on Monday. The plume is not expected to affect trans-Atlantic flights, whose eastbound and westbound tracks are located south of the projected path of the ash.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- Ash from an Icelandic volcano moved over Greenland and forced the cancellation of a single flight there on Monday, but the most of the plume was expected to blow north of Scandinavia and disrupt few, if any, flights over Europe.

Danish air traffic officials said the ash from the Grimsvotn (GREEMSH-votn) volcano reached eastern Greenland, a semiautonomous Danish territory. Air Greenland said its Monday flight between the island's main airport and Copenhagen was canceled as a result.

Aviation officials in Norway said the cloud might also affect flights to and from the Arctic islands of Svalbard on Monday.

Britain's Met Office said the ash may reach British airspace later this week but the European air traffic control agency said it was not expected to move further than the western coast of Scotland.

In April 2010, the Eyjafjallajokull eruption prompted aviation officials to close Europe's air space for five days out of fear that the ash could harm jet engines. Thousands of flights were grounded, airlines lost millions of dollars and millions of travelers were stranded, many sleeping on airport floors across northern Europe.

Eurocontrol's models of ash concentration on Monday showed the main plume of ash at heights from 20,000 feet to 35,000 -- the normal altitudes for passenger airliners -- gradually extending northward from Iceland over the next two days. The cloud is predicted to arch its way north of Scandinavia and possibly touch the islands off the northern Russian coastline within the next two days.

A smaller plume could reach as far as the western coast of Scotland during that period, and the eastern coast of Greenland.

Iceland shut its main airport after Grimsvotn, about 120 miles (200 kilometers) east of Reykjavik, erupted Saturday. The airport remained closed Monday morning, but officials hope to reopen it later in the day.

Neither plume is projected to reach the European mainland. They are also not expected to affect trans-Atlantic flights, whose eastbound and westbound tracks are located further much south of the projected ash dispersal.

"We are not in a position to say as yet as to whether there would be any disruption of European aviation," said Brian Flynn, deputy head of operations. "In any event, we are very confident that if there were to be some disruption it would be at a much smaller scale than that we witnessed last year."

Some airline chiefs complained that regulators had overreacted last year. But a study last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concluded the shutdown had been justified. It said the hard, sharp particles of volcanic ash blasted high into the air could have caused jet engines to fail and sandblasted airplane windows.

The Eyjafjallajokull eruption was more problematic because a combination of factors -- including the ash distribution pattern and unusual weather patterns -- conspired last year to make travel difficult. Meteorologists in Iceland and in Britain have more specialist equipment that enables them to measure the density of ash in the atmosphere -- the key factor in whether a plane should be grounded.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he did not believe volcanic ash would disrupt air traffic as extensively this time.

"We are better prepared and we'll have far better information and intelligence which allows us then to adjust things without necessarily the blanket bans on flights that we saw last year," he said during a visit to Brussels.

[Associated Press]

Meera Selva in London contributed.

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