Amazing pictures of lightening in the Icelandic volcano:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36645958?GT1=43001

News today: A New Blast of Chaos

A new blast of chaos: Another volcanic ash cloud
bound for Britain halts reopening of airports


A new eruption from the Icelandic volcano today
threw plans to get Britain flying again into chaos.

Passengers who were told flights would resume today had their hopes dashed after more cancellations were announced as a new ash cloud headed towards the country. Flights later today will be limited to eastern Scotland as the volcanic ash cloud situation remains 'dynamic', air traffic control company Nats said.

All London airports remained closed today and there will be no flights before
7pm at the earliest in the rest of England, nor in Wales or Northern Ireland.

It has been freezing cold here in Sweden and it snowed this morning briefly. The day before we had some eerie cloud colours as in this pic I took:

You can see the red ash in the clouds though it did not precipitate here. Friends in the UK report getting red dust on the ground.

Eyjafjallajokul Erupting Again Today

Also, the standard on how much ash can be present in the air was raised for allowing flights. There is already one report of an emergency landing of a flight from the US to Russia yesterday that was speculated to be due to engine failure from ash. They lost two engines... There could likely be more in the next days ahead. I can imagine the dilemma on what to do to keep air traffic moving. Maybe if it gets much worse they will have to get more puddle jumpers going, prop planes...

As an aviation fan I would love to see some old planes resurrected :) though even conventional piston and turboprops can get bunged up with dust unless they have proper filters. Isn't this dust supposed to be toxic to breathe? Just trying to picture aviation in the future in a volcanic ash-saturated world ;)