Well, this all seems somehow familiar: Volcano in Iceland erupts, spewing a cloud of ash particles out across Europe, which in turn shuts down flight traffic. Where have we heard that before? Oh yeah, last April, when an Icelandic volcano by the fabulous name of Eyjafjallajökull erupted and threw the entire continent into transportation chaos.
The main difference seems this year's culprit's far more pronounceable name, the handily brief Grímsvötn.
No, that's not fair: The other major difference is that when Eyjafjallajökull erupted last April, it was an unprecedented situation, and no one could say for sure when was safe to fly and when wasn't. The result was a week-long flight ban for almost all of Europe.
This time, it's just northern Europe and, at the moment, the worst seems to be over. There was anxious anticipation on Tuesday (with the ash cloud scheduled to reach Germany around 2 a.m.) and the flight ban starting 11 a.m. today, Wednesday, but at this point (evening), airport operations are pretty much back to normal.
The one other little difference this year for me personally is that this time, I happen to be scheduled on a flight early tomorrow morning. A rather important one – for a trip to the US, i.e. the Yearly Visit Home. As you perhaps can imagine, I've been anxiously checking airport websites and ash cloud maps all day.
At the moment, things look good, the amount of ash has diminished, the latest press release from the German flight safety authority says the situation "eased considerably" and almost all flights from Berlin Tegel are taking off normally.
Sleep, good Grímsvötn, sleep...
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