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Ash from Russian volcanoes cancels flights in Alaska

Sunday, 01 March 2015 4:47 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 01 March 2015 4:47 PM ]

File photo shows an Alaska Airlines plane taking off from Oakland International Airport, in Oakland, California. (© AFP)

An airline in the US state of Alaska has cancelled several flights due to low visibility caused by ash from erupting Russian volcanoes.

“We canceled two round-trip flights between Anchorage and Bethel, and Anchorage and Nome after an advisory of low visibility [on Saturday],” said Halley Knigge, a spokesman for Alaska Airlines.

Knigge said flying through known areas of ash is prohibited according to the Alaska Airlines policy, adding that the situation is being closely monitored and more flights may be cancelled as a precaution.

Jeff Freymueller, a scientist at the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO), said three volcanoes, namely Shiveluch, Klyuchevskoy and Karymsky, were erupting on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.

According to data collected by AVO, Russia’s Shiveluch volcano (seen above) erupted Friday and sent ash into the atmosphere some 30,000 feet over the Bering Sea and into western Alaska.

Referring to Shiveluch volcano, Freymueller said, “It’s been erupting very regularly…. Not all the time, but it doesn’t pause for long, no more than several months or a year or two since the sixties.”

Freymueller added that, on January 22, Shiveluch volcano had caused a similar incident and resulted in the cancellation of Western Alaska flights.

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