PHOTOS: Volcanic ash closes European airports

Stranded French tourists play cards and wait on the floor near the Air France ticket counter at LAX in hopes of getting on one of the four Air France flights departing for Paris on Tuesday. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

April 15, 2010 12 AM PT

Stranded French tourists nap amongst luggage with their tour group near the Air France ticket counter at LAX in hopes of getting on one of the four Air France flights departing for Paris on Tuesday. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Relatives of passengers wave to a Lufthansa airliner taking off for Chicago from Dusseldorf, Germany. German authorities extended the closure of its airspace on Tuesday due to the giant plume of ash from the Icelandic volcano, but some airlines operated flights with special permission. (Volker Hartman / AFP/Getty Images)

Passengers wait for flights out of Barajas airport in Madrid, which has become a hub for fliers as large parts of European airspace remain closed. (Denis Doyle / Getty Images)

A member of the German air-traffic control’s crisis-management team points to a map showing current air-traffic activity during a meeting in Langen, Germany. (Marius Becker / AFP/Getty Images)

A farmer in Iceland clears ash from a goat house at his property near the Eyjafjallajokull volcano. (Emmanuel Dunand / AFP/Getty Images)

The first of three KLM passenger planes headed toward New York takes off from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam after European transport officials allowed some international flights to resume, breaking a flight halt caused by a cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland. (Peter Dejong / Associated Press)

Lightning is seen amid the lava and ash erupting from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano as it continues to vent into the skies over Europe. Low-energy lightning can occur during volcanic eruptions. (Jon Pall Vilhelmsson / Associated Press)

Smoke and ash from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano make their way across a field near Nupur. (Emmanuel Dunand / AFP/Getty Images)

Ash from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano covers an evacuted farm near Porvaldseyri. (Emmanuel Dunand / AFP/Getty Images)

Passengers use camp beds as they wait for the resumption of flights Friday at the Frankfurt airport, the biggest in Germany. Flights there were halted indefinitely as a high-altitude cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland spread farther over Europe. Elsewhere in Germany, flights were grounded at Berlin, Cologne, Duesseldorf, Hamburg and Hanover, among other airports. (Torsten Silz AFP / Getty Images)

Ground staff secures plastic over the engine of an aircraft at Belfast City Airport in Northern Ireland, on April 16, 2010. Thousands more flights were canceled around the world Friday as a cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland kept airspace across northern Europe closed, inflicting a second day of travel misery on passengers. (Peter Muhly AFP / Getty Images)

Travelers gather inside a terminal at the Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport, despite commercial flights being canceled by a plume of volcanic ash originating from Iceland. The Icelandic volcano that erupted Wednesday has sent an enormous cloud of microscopic ash particles across northern Europe, grounding aircraft across the continent. (Christophe Ena / Associated Press)

A customs officer plays with his dog in an empty terminal at the Charles-de-Gaulle at Airport outside Paris. The airport has been closed due to clouds of ash resulting from the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland. (Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images)

Passengers gather in front of flight information screens at Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport, as hundreds of commercial flights across northern Europe are canceled by a drifting plume of volcanic ash originating from Iceland. (Christophe Ena / Associated Press)

Passengers who arrived in Glasgow on a flight from the Dominican Republic wait in a line to get a transit bus to Gatwick Airport on Friday. A small number of flights in and out of Scotland have resumed as clouds of ash continued to disrupt air traffic across parts of northern Europe for a second day. (Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images)

Passengers wait at the departure hall of Frankfurt airport Friday. Clouds of ash resulting from the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland has disrupted air traffic across parts of Northern Europe. (Alex Grimm / Getty Images)

Passengers wait in an empty terminal at Stansted Airport in Essex, eastern England, on Friday during the continent’s biggest air travel shutdown since World War II, with Europe’s air traffic control center predicting 17,000 flights would be canceled on Friday. (Carl Court AFP / Getty Images)

Italian tourists rest in the departure hall of Prague’s Ruzyne airport Friday. A huge cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland cast a growing shadow over Europe, grounding thousands more flights in the continent’s biggest air travel shutdown since World War II. (Michal Cizek AFP / Getty Images)

Travelers crowd in front of the ticket desk of German railway company Deutsche Bahn on Friday at the airport in Frankfurt. Many travelers tried to take the train as an alternative to their canceled flights. (Torsten Silz / AFP / Getty Images)

Victor Delerue, left, Victor Daviet and Julien Mata of France play cards at terminal 4 in Arlanda Airport outside Stockholm on Friday. The three young men were waiting for a flight to Kiruna in northern Sweden, where they are expected to take part in a snowboard movie. The cloud of ash from an Icelandic volcano has created chaos in the air traffic system of northern Europe. (Johan Nilsson AFP / Getty Images)

A traffic light signals stop as a plane in the background approaches for landing at the Duesseldorf airport in western Germany. Ash from the volcano under Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull glacier blew southeast after the eruption, causing the cancellation of hundreds of flights worldwide.

Volcanic ash closes European airports, stranding tens of thousands of travelers
Video: Raw footage of the ash cloud
Graphic: Flight hazard

(Frank Augstein / Associated Press)

An airline passenger rests on his luggage at Gatwick Airport. All British airports were ordered shut, and air traffic was halted over Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland, stranding tens of thousands of travelers. Shutdowns and cancellations spread to France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Volcanic ash closes European airports, stranding tens of thousands of travelers
Video: Raw footage of the ash cloud
Graphic: Flight hazard

(Carl Court / AFP/Getty Images)

A picture taken last month shows tourists gathered at the Fimmvorduhals volcano in Iceland, which is near the site of the latest eruption.

Volcanic ash closes European airports, stranding tens of thousands of travelers
Video: Raw footage of the ash cloud
Graphic: Flight hazard

(Halldor Kolbeins / AFP / Getty Images)

A sign warns passengers of flight delays and cancellations after Britain’s National Air Traffic Control Service ordered the closure of airports at midday and said later that it would last until at least 6 a.m. Friday morning. (10 p.m. Thursday PDT).

Volcanic ash closes European airports, stranding tens of thousands of travelers
Video: Raw footage of the ash cloud
Graphic: Flight hazard

(Matt Dunham / Associated Press)

Airline passengers wait for flights in a departures hall of Glasgow Airport in Scotland.

Volcanic ash closes European airports, stranding tens of thousands of travelers
Video: Raw footage of the ash cloud
Graphic: Flight hazard

(Andy Buchanan / AFP / Getty Images)

Smoke and steam hang over the volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland, which has erupted for the second time in less than a month, melting ice, shooting smoke and steam into the air and forcing hundreds of people to flee rising floodwaters. Volcanic ash drifting across the Atlantic has disrupted air traffic across Europe, stranding tens of thousands of passengers.

Volcanic ash closes European airports, stranding tens of thousands of travelers
Video: Raw footage of the ash cloud
Graphic: Flight hazard

(Brynjar Gaudi / Associated Press)

Aircraft grounded by drifting ash spewed by a volcanic eruption in Iceland wait at Northern Ireland’s Belfast City Airport. Across Europe and beyond, tens of thousands of passengers were stranded in one of most disruptive events to hit air travel in years.