volcanic eruption in Iceland on Thursday spread out across Europe and resulted in travel chaos on a scale not seen since the September 11, 2001, terror attacks in the US.Thousands of passengers were stranded at Mumbai’s Sahar international airport with their eyes glued totelevision screens for updates. Many were clueless about the reason behind the cancellations and were seen inquiring at other airline counters for flight options. Some passengers were provided accommodation by airlines, others asked to fend for themselves.
A hassled Ruud De Boer, 56, was furious. “I was told that my flight was cancelled after waiting for more than two hours on Thursday. The airlines did not bother to explain the reasons for the cancellation or tell us about the volcanic eruption,” lamented Ruud.
Ruud, managing director of a private firm in Netherlands, was then scheduled to fly by Delta Air Lines flight DL-239 Mumbai-Amsterdam at 8pm on Friday. But he was seen struggling to hire a prepaid taxi outside the terminal late in the evening.
“I got to know that the flight was cancelled when I reached the airport at 5pm. I don’t like the manner in which the airline has handled the issue. They gave us hotel accommodation till Friday and said we would have to stay back at our own expense,” said Ruud. He has now booked tickets for a Swiss Air flight, which plans to take a different route.
Air India passengers Bruce Gery, 25, and Rosie Hanley, 25, however, are glad that the airline provided accommodation. The two were on a two-week holiday in India and were set to return to the UK on Friday. “We left Goa at 5am by train to catch our afternoon flight to London from Mumbai.” said Rosie.
Though the AI0131 flight was cancelled, Bruce said, “We were lucky that the airline gave us hotel accommodation. We want nothing more.”There were chaotic scenes at international airports too. Airports in much of Britain, France and Germany remained closed and flights were set to be grounded in Hungary and parts of Romania as well. Airlines and travel operators were losing hundreds of millions of dollars over the grounded flights due to the ash from the eruption of volcano Eyjafjoll in Iceland. The volcanic ash poses a threat to safety because it can get sucked into jet engines and cause them to cut out. The World Health Organisation in Geneva said that the ash could also have potential health impacts if it settles.
Santosamaru 