Much of Europe still a volcanic no-fly zone

PARIS — A cloud of ash hovered over Europe on Friday, casting a pall over an interwoven world.

The cloud, made up of microscopic particles as hard as a knife's blade and coughed up by an Icelandic volcano, crept across the industrial powerhouses of Europe, into the steppes of Russia and as far south as Hungary.

It stranded travelers and grounded cargo flights. And it created political confusion and fears that the cloud of grit will endanger the lungs of children, asthmatics and others with respiratory ailments.

How long it lasts and how far it spreads depends on two unpredictable factors: Whether the volcano beneath Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull glacier keeps erupting, and which way the wind blows.

The invisible cloud could split, reaching down into northern Italy, and perhaps break apart over the Alps. Scientists say the volcano could continue erupting for months, with more chaos ensuing with each big belch of basalt powder and gas.

"It's going to be a mess," said volcanologist Michael Rampino of New York University. "It's a menace to air traffic, just sitting there, waiting to go off."

Henry Margusity, senior meteorologist for AccuWeather.com, predicted the jet-stream winds will continue to pick up dust over Iceland and carry it to Britain and Europe "like a spray can of ash" through Wednesday.

The 19th-century eruption of Indonesia's island volcano Krakatau was bigger. In ancient times, Mount Vesuvius buried a city. And in the 17th century, a series of eruptions from Peru to the South Pacific blocked the sun and sent the Earth's temperatures plunging.

But the Icelandic eruption illustrates the particular vulnerabilities of the modern world.

The airline industry said it was losing $200 million a day in cancellations, not counting the costs of rerouting or caring for grumpy passengers.

Almost two-thirds of Europe's usual 28,000 flights were grounded Friday, according to the air traffic agency Eurocontrol. Airspace remained closed in Britain and across large chunks of the continent.

Restrictions were imposed or lifted as the cloud moved: Flights were suspended at Frankfurt airport, Europe's third-busiest, and elsewhere in Germany, while Ireland reopened airports in Dublin and Cork.

Powerful politicians were left far from home. German Chancellor Angela Merkel governed Europe's biggest economy from Portugal after her flight from the United States was diverted.

A new iPad helped Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg keep in touch with his government while he was stuck in Switzerland, where he ended up after trying to fly home from the United States.

With German airspace closed, a flight carrying five German soldiers wounded in Afghanistan was diverted to Turkey; U.S. medical evacuations from Iraq and Afghanistan went directly to Washington, D.C.

Polish officials worried the cloud could threaten the arrival of world leaders for Sunday's state funeral for President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, Maria, in Krakow. Many runners who have trained for Monday's Boston Marathon may not get there to compete.

Airline cancellations also brought personal anguish.

Anissa Isker arrived Friday at Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris in hopes of taking son Ryan, 8, who has a rare genetic disease and uses a wheelchair, to Miami for treatment that could help him walk.

The hard-to-schedule treatment costs $3,000, a sum she is afraid she will lose if they can't leave this weekend.

"I think it's going to be tough, especially with my little one. When I told him we cannot leave, he got nervous," Isker said.

Potentially lifesaving organs, too, were stuck in transit. All donor organs that usually would be flown to patients were instead being distributed to those within driving distance.

"Hearts, lungs and livers, which are normally transported by air, are now delivered regionally and by ground travel," said Nadine Koerner, a spokeswoman for the German Foundation for Organ Transplant.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned the ash could cause breathing problems. Europeans, especially those with respiratory ailments or asthma, should try to stay indoors if the ash starts settling, officials said.

"We're very concerned about it," said WHO spokesman Daniel Epstein.

But Ken Donaldson, a professor of respiratory toxicology at the University of Edinburgh, said volcanic ash was much less dangerous than cigarette smoke or pollution.

With planes in Norway grounded and trains booked, British comedian John Cleese resorted to a $5,100 taxi ride to Brussels, Belgium, from Oslo, where he had taped an appearance on a Norwegian talk show Thursday night.

Other travelers took to the rails. Extra trains were put on in Amsterdam, and railroad workers handed out free coffee to those waiting in long lines to buy train tickets.

Train operator Eurostar said it was carrying almost 50,000 passengers between London, Paris and Brussels. Thalys, a high-speed venture of the French, Belgian and German rail companies, was allowing passengers to buy tickets even if trains were fully booked.

Ferry operators in Britain received a flurry of bookings from people desperate to cross the English Channel to France, while London taxi company Addison Lee said it had received requests for journeys to cities as far away as Paris, Milan, Amsterdam and Zurich.