All UK airports are closed to flights due to volcanic ash from the volcano in Iceland, the dust is drifting south.

There is already chaos and it will get worse.

I suspect that Ren's boss is stranded, I don't know if he managed to get to the UK before they stopped flying into Gatwick or whether he is still here in Jersey, or catching a boat to the UK where he will still be stranded.

Pardon my ingnornace, but is it more of a cloud people are seeing in the UK or physical little bits of ash falling?

There's nothing visible in the air where I am. According to the news, it's a high level dust cloud that can affect aircraft engines if they fly through it. We will get no falling ash, but we should get a very red sunset tonight.

Mark

I understand the cloud dust is at 20,000ft

Yes my boss is stranded. Ah well !

My sympathies to all those affected by the canceling of their flights. I hope there won't be too much chaos and I hope people will not get too angry.

I hope that everyone will be understanding and agree that closing airports and stopping flights is the right thing to do we don't want a repeat of the June 24th 1982 British Airways flight 009 incident or the December 15th 1989 KLM flight 867 incident. Planes might not be that lucky this time around.

No mail from the UK nor newspapers for us tomorrow.

I am glad Sara's boss got out of Jersey this morning, at least at Heathrow British Airways will look after him, unlike the carrier he used from here to London, they would possibly have been less likely to have been helpful.

Quite a few other European countries are closing airspace too, not just the UK.

Here in Holland everything is closed too. I hear all planes in Belgium, Denmark, Norway and Sweden are grounded. France and Germany will close down airports as the cloud approaches.
In other news: Queen Margarethe of Denmark is having a 70th birthday party, that means there are a lot of royals taking the train today.

(edited for spelling)

Sorry for those inconvenienced by delayed flights. Another concern is the melting ice from the heat of the volcano, which is causing flooding and threatening the small communities near the Eyjafjallajökull volcano.

Here are some photos of the eruption and the rising rivers.

MadMags - some beautiful photos in there.

Australia is about as far away from Iceland as anywhere on the planet, but people are feeling the effects down here, too.

There are over 1000 passengers stranded in various Asian cities after their planes were stopped from continuing on to London and other European destinations. Many more intending travellers have been told to not go to Australian airports until the situation clears up.

Mags, those piccies are magnificent! Thanks for sharing them. Not sure that I would want to be one of those tourists getting right next to an active volcano, though.

Ren's boss is stuck in London for at least another day, they have just cancelled everything until at least Saturday morning.

Well he says at least the weather is gorgeous!

I work in the travel industry and things are getting quite chaotic as there are 17 countries who have closed down their airports, thatis virtually ll of Northern Europe being a no fy zone. Once flights do start up again the backlog of passengers will make things extremely difficult for the airlines for the next week or so, but volcanologists say the ash could cause problems to air traffic for up to six months if the eruption continues. For the sake of the travellers I hope that they are mistaken.

I've been watching this cam off and on this morning, with nothing happening. I just checked it again - another eruption is happening.

edited to fix link

Well, I am fully affected by it - sitting in Las Vegas and having no idea whether my plane will fly tomomorrow (Dusseldorf via Heathrow) or not. I hope I will get at least somewhere in the UK and then be able to do something with cars/buses/trains and ferries to go back to Germany, but I also have a secondary booking going on Air France for Tuesday (which I can cancel at any time) just in case.

I guess this will all be about who has the smartest ticketing ideas right now and for the next weeks - some folks are looking at LONG involuntary holidays if Murphy's law holds true.

I just went outside and I heard a plane at the airport! Mind you, it will be an inter-island 'prop plane' one and not a jet.

Wesley - just to let you know Spanish airports are open as we are not affected, you might want to try to fly into Madrid or Barcelona, there are direct flights from Vegas to Madrid, if you are desperate to get back.

The problem then would be that many other people will be thinking the same, they could be heavily booked.

Wesley, even if you could get to the UK all ferries and trains are booked solid. European airspace is closed as far south as Switzerland so Spain and Italy seem like the best bet for flights but I've no idea what continental train bookings are like. It's been reported here that John Cleese had to get a taxi from Oslo to Brussels - presumably he could afford the £3,300 fare!

I got the following comment from the BBC website...

" BBC correspondents have been tweeting about their personal experiences of the travel disruption. Lyse Doucet has had to travel by train from Kabul to London.

She tweets: "In Cologne. Standing room only on trains in Europe travel chaos. People ordered off trains. Too full to move! Stay calm urges one passenger!" "
.....

So perhaps flying into somewhere like Spain might not be such a good idea.

Did anyone read the article about John Cleese getting stuck in Sweden? He rented a car and drove home... I think he had about 4 drivers going non-stop and only stopped for food and bathrooms!

From the BBC News site:

"German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was due to return from a visit to the US on Friday, had to fly to Lisbon where she spent the night. With all German airports still closed, she flew on to Italy on Saturday and is set to continue her journey home by bus."

Northern Italy has closed its airspace, Wesley, so you'll need to get the bus in Naples. But I think Chancellor Merkel may have had the last spare hotel room...