Dash Production News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Airplanes that you talked about. the ash production that was so heavy on friday and saturday that it literally blanketed the countryside in black is blanket countryside in blank. it's now only 1/10 of what it was. so that is, indeed, very good news. in fact today, i went up with my team in a helicopter, and we were seeing these huge explosions and we had been up on saturday. it actually seemed more powerful to us from the air. so we had a volcanologist with us and she said the reason is we're actually able to fly now, so much closer to the crater because so much of that ash plume has cleared. ...

Importantly, the ash production is only 10% of what it was, alex. >> okay, you know, chris, you are just a great reporter. were you scared going up in that plane or that chopper today? i mean, did anything cross your mind like i'm not so comfortable doing this. >> reporter: my blackberry died. it was a victim of volcanic ash and i thought if we crashed, how would i ever call for help? see i'm an optimist. i was assuming i would survive. you know the chopper was going pretty good. and even at one point the pilot, who's one of the most experienced pilots here and has actually done some flying fo...

The ash production almost insignificant now. coming up later this hour, we'll be talking to an american comedian stuck in london. it was meant to be a three-day trip. now it's been more than a week. you'll hear from jenna axelrod coming up. breaking news just coming in, u.s. military officials confirming that the five pirates who fired on a u.s. navy warship in the indian ocean, they are being brought to the u.s. to face criminal charges. we're going to continue to work more on this story. we'll get to nbc's jim miklaszewski when he's ready to bring more details. u.s. military officials co...

Still erupting. we have news about it. with me right now one of the top volcano experts in iceland. his name is magnus, he is a professor, geo physics at the university of iceland. you told me before over the last three days this volcano has -- it. >> has. compared to the first three days, when it was creating all the ash particles, tiny particles going to europe and causing the hav vioc. but now it's producing much less. >> is that a sign that perhaps the eruptions could be ending soon? >> i don't think we can take it as a sign of the eruption ending. i mean, this volcano, the last time it er...