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Ash cloud blows further north, more air traffic interupted

BERLIN — A cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland that had forced airport closures in northern Germany blew further north and east Wednesday afternoon, allowing air traffic to resume as experts said the eruption appeared to be winding down.
Advocate Staff
Iceland Volcano
This image provided by NASA shows an image taken by a NASA MODIS satellite acquired at 1:15 a.m. EDT on May 22 shows the ash plume from the Grimsvotn volcano casts shadow to the west.

BERLIN — A cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland that had forced airport closures in northern Germany blew further north and east Wednesday afternoon, allowing air traffic to resume as experts said the eruption appeared to be winding down.

European air traffic controllers said they expected about 700 flights to be cancelled Wednesday, but Eurocontrol added that activity from Iceland’s Grimsvotn volcano has declined sharply and that traffic in European airspace could return to normal Thursday.

“There were very few eruptions by the volcano over the last six to 12 hours so the volcano is in a reasonably calm state at the moment,” said Brian Flynn, head of network operations for Eurocontrol.

“Assuming that continues, we would expect that the European aviation would be able to return to almost a normal situation within the next 24 hours.”

Volcano experts in Iceland said the eruption appeared to be tapering off. Observers at the crater were reporting only steam, said Pall Einarsson, from the University of Iceland.