14 June 2011

Volcanic eruption in Eritrea disrupts air traffic in East Africa

update (30 June 2011): The Nabro (or Anabro) volcano in Eritrea stopped erupting after 25 days. Satellite imagery has confirmed that the volcano in north east Africa is no longer emitting ash, sulphur dioxide or water vapour.

update (15 June 2011): Ethiopian Airways has cancelled flights to Sudan and Djibouti.
Kenya Airways is no longer flying on the Ethiopia-Djibouti route and Dubai's Emirates airline has cancelled flights to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
The ash cloud has changed direction from north-west to south-west and has reached Sudan and Egypt. The the size of the ash cloud is decreasing.

The Nabro (or Anabro) volcano, located in the Northern Red Sea Region of Eritrea, erupted on Sunday, sending plumes of ash more than 13km into the air and disrupting flights across eastern Africa. According to the Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC), the scale of the eruption, compared to the ongoing eruption in Chile and 2010's eruption at Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland, remains unclear. The VAAC is predicting that the ash cloud will get caught in a west-to-east jet stream and spread to the skies over parts of Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Israel, Jordan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
Airlines that travel through East Africa said yesterday (13 June 2011) they are keeping an eye on the an ash cloud. As a first result Germany's flag carrier Lufthansa cancelled flights to both Eritrea and neighbouring Ethiopia on 13 June 2011.

No comments:

Post a Comment