British civil aviation authorities ordered the closing of the country’s airspace as of noon on Thursday to shield aircraft from a high-altitude cloud of ash drifting south and east from an erupting volcano in Iceland. The plume shut down airports and forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights in a wide arc from Ireland to Scandinavia.
The closure was among the most sweeping peacetime restrictions ordered in British airspace. It left airplanes stranded on the tarmac as the rolling cloud — made up of minute particles of silicate that can damage airplane engines — headed from Britain and Scandinavia toward northern Europe. News reports said Denmark and Sweden also had restricted air travel, while Belgium was about to.
“From midday today until at least 6 p.m., there will be no flights permitted in U.K.-controlled airspace other than emergency situations,†Britain’s National Air Traffic Service said in a statementon its Web site. “This has been applied in accordance with international civil aviation policy.â€
Matthew Watson, a specialist in the study of volcanic ash clouds from Bristol University in England, said the plume was “likely to end up over Belgium, Germany, the Lowlands — a good portion over Europe†and was unlikely to disperse for 24 hours,†meaning that airports were likely to remain closed longer than initially forecast.
The move effectively grounded all flights in Britain from 11 a.m. local time and affected an estimated 6,000 flights that use British airspace every day, aviation experts said. Oddly, for travelers, the closing was announced under clear blue skies. Experts had said earlier that the ash may not be visible from the ground.
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