Flight cancellations in Europe continue as Iceland’s Eyjafjallajoekull volcano continues to erupt and expand the volcano’s across most of Europe. Volcanic ash is known to wreak havoc upon jet engines and as a precaution,  air traffic has been indefinitely halted.

Forecasts indicate that the condition may actually worsen during the week as the volcano becomes more active, with expectations that things could go worse by Tuesday or Wednesday. With the worst shutdown in the word’s global air traffic since September 11, 2001, many are fearing for the survival of airlines already hard hit by global recession, as well as the fate of millions who are unable to go home, and have no clue as to when it will be safe to fly. The world’s airlines are losing an estimated $200 million daily.

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Authorities of Great Britain, France and the Netherlands have all conducted successful test flights of passenger aircraft through weaker areas of the volcanic dust, but the Finnish Air Force, testing F-18 jet fighters, concluded that the effects of the dust even during a brief period of time could be catastrophic to delicate engine parts.

Nevertheless, some flights have been permitted in certain areas of Europe (notably northern Scandinavia and United Kingdom) where the dust and ash is sparse, and European and international organizations have been busy trying to solve the dilemma by trying to find safe conduits for air traffic through the dust cloud.

VIP’s are no less affected. The safety precautions have also prevented many dignitaries and world leaders, including President Obama, from attending the funeral of Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski.

Scientists have weighed in on the matter, and many have compared the eruption to Iceland’s infamous Laki volcano in 1783-84, which created an unusually hot summer and unusually cod winter. Besides blood red sunrises over much of the northern hemisphere, Laki is regarded as having been responsible for the deaths of one quarter of Iceland’s population, as well as starving Inuit populations in Alaska from severe freezing.   

While scientists are quick to point out that the current Eyjafjallajoekull eruption is much smaller in magnitude than Laki, that based on evidence available to them (including the memoirs of Benjamin Franklin, who wrote about the eruption at the time), the Laki eruption would have forced the grounding of all jet air traffic for at least five months had technology exiting at the time.