MOSCOW, May 25 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s flagship carrier Aeroflot canceled a flight to Germany’s Hamburg on Wednesday as a plume of ash and smoke from Iceland’s Grimsvotn Volcano has reached northern Germany, a spokesman for the airline said.
Wednesday’s flights to Hannover and Berlin may also be canceled, the spokesman said.
The airspace over Germany remained closed for one hour on Wednesday between 5.00 a.m. local time (03:00 GMT) and 06.00 a.m.
Grimsvotn Volcano in Iceland’s most active Vatnajokull glacier started to erupt in the late hours on Saturday. The ash plume has reached the height of 20,000 meters.
British meteorologists said on Wednesday that the volcano may have become dormant once again. As of 02:00 GMT, there has been no volcanic ash plume registered over the volcano’s crater, they said, quoting Icelandic meteorological services. However, bad weather could also be the reason why the ash plume has not been seen on radar screens, they said.
Icelandic volcanologists earlier predicted that the eruption would not cause a major air traffic collapse similar to the one that occurred during the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull Volcano in southern Iceland last spring.
However, a total of 500 flights have already been canceled in Europe, most of them in northern England and Scotland.
Meteorologists say the volcanic cloud is likely to spread further over northern and western Europe on Wednesday, including Denmark, southern Norway and southwest Sweden, where flight disruptions are possible.