Air travel throughout the world was cancelled, because the ash from the volcano can make engines fail,
this meant that planes were limited to where they could fly.
It is estimated that around £1.1billion was lost by airplane companies.
Over 107,000 flights were cancelled across Europe
during 8 days. Over 10million people could not travel
by air.
In total 27 countries in Europe were affected.
Green: Iceland
Orange: Countries that stopped some flights.
Red: Countries that stopped all flights
The eruption couldn’t have come at a worse time with thousands of people taking a break away from the
Easter holidays.
Thousands of people had to find alternative ways to get
back to the UK. There was a huge effect on schools in
the UK as teachers and pupils couldn’t get back in time
for the first days back after the holidays.
The Euro star and ferries from Europe had to put on
more services and were incredibly busy. In France a
strike by train drivers added to the chaos.
The effects were felt all over the world as people
were trapped in Asia, Africa, the Americas and
Oceania unable to return to Europe by air.
In the UK there were a shortage of flowers, fruit and electronic goods in the days during the eruption.
This was because they are normally flown in from other countries.
Medicines were also affected as they passed their use-by-date and new ones that were made in other
countries could not be brought in by plane.
In Kenya, Africa, 400 tonnes of flowers were burnt
because they could not be flown into the UK and had
no other way of getting here before they died. This
meant that everyday flowers could not be sent to
the UK, Kenya lost £3.8million. Thousands of Kenyan
Farmers lost their jobs because their bosses couldn’t
afford to pay them as they weren’t earning money
because they could not sell their flowers or vegetables.
The volcano erupted underneath hundreds of tonnes of ice. The hot lava caused the ice to melt this
caused a huge flood that effected local people. Eight hundred people had to be evacuated from their
homes.
Water in rivers rose by up to 2 meters. Luckily nobody was killed by the floods; however lots of homes
were damaged by the water. Two hundred people were unable to return to their homes for two weeks
because of the damage. They had to sleep in a local community centre.
A main road was completed washed into the sea by the flood.
There was once a road here that is now
completely washed away.
Lots of celebrities could not travel to countries that they were going to be
appearing on television, including actress Gwyneth Paltrow and Demi Moore.
Actor John Cleese was so desperate to get
back to the UK from Norway; that he travelled
1,500km in a taxi lasting 15 hours and costing
around £3,300! He went through six countries:
Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany,
The Netherlands and Belgium.
Sporting events had to be cancelled because teams could not travel there; football games were
postponed and the Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix was changed to take place in October.
20th March 2010 – Small eruptions start from the volcano.
12th April 2010 – Hundreds of small earthquakes happen; a sign that a bigger
eruption is on the way.
13th April 2010 – A large eruption happens directly underneath a large
amount of ice causing it to melt. The water mixes with
Ash Cloud on 16th of April 2010
lava and creates a huge ash cloud.
14th April 2010 – The ash cloud from the volcano reaches up 8km into the sky.
15th April 2010 –
Ash has blown all over Europe, causing countries to close their air space and stop
planes.
17th April 2010 – The eruption continued but less explosively meaning that the amount of ash being
erupted was getting smaller, however countries still had to close airspace as the ash already in the air
spread out over Europe.
19th April 2010 – The first countries reopened their airspace; including Germany, Poland and
Switzerland.
20th April 2010 – All airspace was reopened and it was safe for planes to fly over Europe again.