Chilean volcanic ash clouds halt more flights

Ash clouds from a Chilean volcano continued to cause numerous flight cancellations in Australia and New Zealand Tuesday for at least one airliner.

Ash clouds from a Chilean volcano continued to cause numerous flight cancellations in Australia and New Zealand Tuesday for at least one airliner.

Australia’s national carrier Qantas said it had canceled flights to and from Adelaide and Tasmania but lifted its ban on flights to and from Melbourne. The airliner has also canceled flights to and from New Zealand Tuesday because of the ash cloud.

The company said it would resume flights to and from Adelaide on Wednesday and that all mainland Australian flights would run as scheduled on Wednesday, as well.

Virgin Australia announced on its website that flights to those same areas were expected to run on schedule Tuesday.

Air New Zealand had no announced cancellations on its website Tuesday.

The disturbance was caused after Chile’s Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano erupted earlier this month.

In 1982, a British Airways 747 Jumbo suffered severe damage and had all four engines fail when it encountered ash from an Indonesian volcano.

The plane was able to restart some engines before making an emergency landing in Jakarta.

The U.S. Geological Survey says more than 80 commercial aircraft have unexpectedly encountered volcanic ash in flight and at airports in the past 15 years.

Ash ingested by jet engines may lead to the deterioration in performance and engine failure, the U.S. agency says.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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