Volcanic ash keeps Iceland airports closed

yahoo ^ | Sat Apr 24, 11:33 am ET | AFP

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

REYKJAVIK (AFP) – Iceland's main airport remained closed on Saturday for a second day, as ash from the volcano that shut down European airspace last week spread over the Nordic country.

Keflavik Airport will not be open "at least not today," said Hjordis Gudmundsdottir, a spokeswoman for the Civil Aviation Administration.

"We will see what it looks like tomorrow, but no one knows," she told AFP.

The widening ash cloud temporarily closed Akureyri Airport, a secondary facility in the north of the country that the carrier Icelandair is using to reroute passengers.

However flights were again able to use Akureyri for connections to Glasgow, where Icelandair has temporarily based its international fleet of aircraft.

"We have a flight to Glasgow today, then we have a flight back in the afternoon," Icelandair spokesman Gudjon Arngrimsson told AFP.

Gudmundsdottir said "it's possible to fly from Akureyri" provided that aircraft are piloted visually, rather than on instruments, and she said that the forecast was positive.

"It looks actually OK for Akureyri this evening," she said.

However, there was no immediate relief in sight for Keflavik.

Although the weather was clear over Iceland on Saturday and ash was not visible, Gudmundsdottir said the volcanic debris had been found on light propeller-powered aircraft flying in the area.

"They can't see it in the air of course, because it's like a thin sand, but they have been seeing it on the planes," she said.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

It's still doing it!

[garyhope]

Well that and the collapse of the Iceland banking system and currency.

And don’t forget Bjork and her music and videos and movie.

[MsLady]

And I thought they said last week they thought it was going to stop. This could go on for months.

[Leifur]

Yeah, we are loosing some money because of it, and some tourists are regrettably, quitting their planned trips, but, more or less there will always be some of our International Airports, distributed all around the country open. So coming and going to Iceland is and will be safe, though i hope it will not continue to affect us so it will reduce the much needed income from the tourists. There is no special cause of alarm though our airlines are loosing some money. The ash amount spewed from the mountain has reduced severely.

The authorities have allowed flying within those areas where the ash amount in the air is not so much, just like they decided to increase the margin of error in Europe after a few years. Here is a picture from the most affected farm, where farming has been temporarely ceased:

[Leifur]

posting the picture seems problematic: here it is though: http://mbl.is/frimg/5/28/528892.jpg

[Leifur]

After a few days, I meant, of allowing no flying in any ash affected airspace. They decided to allow it, just as we have now, in areas where the ash is not above a certein thickness in the air.

But yaeh, it could hurt us in an economically vulnerable time, if it does go on for months, especially if people overreact and postpone trips to my big sparsely populated island. Coming now has never been as cheap, as our currency is awailable for a bargain, some could even call us:
halfpr-iceland.

[blam]

[Leifur]

Thanks, I don´t know what I did wrong. Here is a newssegment about it, in icelandic, but with lot of good pictures. This is though only the situation in the places closest to the glacier. Only a handful of farms:

http://mbl.is/mm/frettir/sjonvarp/?play=1;media_id=48480&ref=fprenningur

[SW6906]

What happened? Did the wind shift and now it is blowing towards Reykjavik and up to Akureyri?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Is that the small caldera right there...no emissions?

Or is that a different cone...caldera?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Be back later.

[blam]

"Is that the small caldera right there...no emissions?"

I don't know, I just posted the picture for Leifur because he had trouble doing so.

[Leifur]

You can see the smoke from the eruption I believe in the upper right corner. What I wanted to show in this picture was the darkness of the landscape from the fallen ash. This used to be green fields, and will again. Look at the video link I posted previously, and you can see it better.