Airline Industry Halted by Iceland Volcanic Eruption

Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull icecap covers a 5,466 ft high volcano.  Historically, the volcano has remained fairly active with eruptions occurring in 1921, 1821 and 1612.  In March of 2010,  the seismic activity began that indicated the small Iceland volcano could possibly erupt again.  In April, a small eruption occurred and a large ash cloud was created that lasted for six days.  During these six days, the world’s air travel was heavily disrupted.

On this day, April 16th, in 2010, the airline industry came to a near halt as planes in the United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia were determined unsafe to fly as a result of the volcano ash coming from Iceland.  The Eyjafjallajökull  eruption sent 250 million cubic meters of ash as high as 30,000 feet in the sky and as a result, plane safety was threatened by low visibility and dangerous microscopic debris.  A majority of the flights within, from and to Europe were cancelled until April 20.  The Eyjafjallajökull eruption caused more disruption to Europe’s aerospace than had been experienced since World War II.

Without the ability to travel by air, Europe and the world were heavily effected, both economically and culturally.  The Eyjafjallajökull eruption did not officially end until October of 2010, but the airline industry would only suffer the negative effects of the ash cloud in April.