Volcanic ash makes Kingfisher, Air India cancel flights to London

MUMBAI - With the closure of London’s Heathrow Airport and Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport due to the drifting of volcanic ash from Iceland, Kingfisher Airlines and Air India reportedly on Monday cancelled all its flights to London.

“Having assessed the current information received from Eurocontrol, and the trends indicating anticipated closure of the airspace over London Heaththrow airport due to fresh contamination of volcanic ash, the airlines has cancelled its flights to and from London airport,” said Kingfisher spokesperson.

It has been reported that Air India has rescheduled its flights and a final call would be taken later in the day.olcanic ash consists of small tephra, which are bits of pulverized rock and glass created by volacanic eruptions, less than 2 millimetres in diameter.

There are three mechanisms of volcanic ash formation: gas release under decompression causing magmatic eruptions; thermal contraction from chilling on contact with water causing phreatomagmatic reuptions, and ejection of entrained particles during steam eruptions causing phreatic eruptions.

The violent nature of volcanic eruptions involving steam results in the magma and solid rock surrounding the vent being torn into particles of clay to sand size.

Volcanic ash can lead to breathing problems and malfunctions in machinery, and clouds of it can threaten aircraft and alter weather patterns. (ANI)