The air traffic is seriously diverted in Northern Europe after a volcano has erupted in Iceland for the second time in a month.



After a volcano beneath the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier erupted on Wednesday, several Northern European countries closed their airports to avoid serious damages in the aircrafts. Until now, around 6,000 flights were cancelled directly affecting more than half a million of people in UK, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, France and Poland. Moreover, as Heathrow is the second largest airport in the world the volcanic ash had a global effect on air-travel. So far, officials do not know when the chaotic situation is going to redress as the volcano is still continuing to erupt and to spew ash which has a movement in the atmosphere dependent on the meteorological conditions and the direction of the wind.

When a volcano is emplacing ash to the altitude that commercial aircraft fly, at 30,000 feet, and the upper-level wind is very lame, the ash cloud became slow and dense causing a serious hazard to aviation. It damages flight controls, reduces visibility and in the worst case jams jet engines that become full of molten glass if small, fine particles of heated sand and rock reach them. In this situation, only emergency flights are allowed to use the closed airspace and passengers are advised to contact the airports for further information. After the air travel is going to resume further complications are expected due to the vast number of cancelled flights.