Volcanic Ash, Ash Cloud | featured news

British budget airline easyJet unveiled a volcanic ash detector on Friday that it says will allow aircraft to safely navigate around potentially lethal ash clouds.

Britain and the Netherlands shut or planned to close major airports because of volcanic ash from Iceland on Monday, threatening large-scale air traffic disruption in Europe at the start of the working week.

A mammoth cloud of ash is stretching 1,250 miles across the North Atlantic and forcing aircraft to divert south into a long-haul traffic jam, Irish and European air authorities said.

After two successive days of restrictions due to a plume of volcanic ash, airspace was reopened to all flights.

A no fly zone may have to be imposed over Ireland on Tuesday due to volcanic ash drifting south from Iceland, the Irish Aviation Authority said on Monday.

New eruptions send volcanic ash cloud toward Britain and threaten plans to resume flights.

A huge ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano spreading out across Europe is causing air travel chaos on a scale unseen since the September 11 attacks and costing airlines hundreds of millions of dollars.