Volcanic ash cloud causes historic airport shutdown in Europe

The World

A massive cloud of ashes has kept thousands of flights on the ground in Northern Europe yesterday after a volcano in Iceland erupted a second time this month, spewing huge amounts of silicate ash into a busy airspace for travelers in the region. Some of Europe’s busiest airports have closed down in what appears to be the biggest shutdown of flights since 9/11.

Charisse Jones is an airline industry reporter for USA Today. She tells us that it the mass shutdown of airports in Europe is unprecedented. We also talk with Dr. Matthew Roberts, a glaciologist working at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, who flew over the volcano last night.

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