20:00

British Airways send a test plane into the ash cloud
and did not encounter any difficulties, they say.

As Europe’s airlines and airports question the extent of flight restrictions imposed
because of volcanic ash from Iceland.

Surely the Met office have not got it wrong?

The volcanic eruption in Iceland on Wednesday night sent plumes of ash thousands of feet into the air.
The cloud has spread across the UK to Europe.

Airspace closed:
Belgium
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
Hungary (from 1700 GMT)
Latvia
Lithuania
Netherlands
Slovakia
Switzerland (from 2200 GMT)

Partial closures:
Austria (closures from 1600 GMT)
France (northern airspace)
Germany (most airports closed)
Italy (Rome’s Fiumicino airport affected; Alitalia cancels most flights)
Norway (limited flights in north)
Poland (all but Rzeszow airport closed)
Republic of Ireland (most airspace opened Friday)
Sweden (northern airspace opened Friday)
UK (near-total closure)

Ash clouds from Iceland’s volcano disrupted air traffic across Europe
as authorities closed air space over Britain, Ireland and the Nordic countries.

The Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland erupted on Wednesday, April 14th, for the second time this month.

The volcano’s smoke and ash poses a threat to aircraft because it can affect visibility,
and microscopic debris can get sucked into airplane engines and can cause them to shut down.

Ironically the ash cloud has not disrupted operations at Iceland’s Keflavik airport
or caused problems in the capital of Reykjavik.

Some pics i took whilst being a tourist in London

click on an image to enlarge
All pics – Panasonic DMC-TZ7