Page 18 - Tom Aspell News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

The end of today to be less than 1100 airlines that will make -- 1100 planes, rather, that will make it in. large parts of western europe blocked o you heard al roker mention netherlands, scandinavia, germany, france, airports across western europe as that cloud of volcanic ash is 20 or 30,000 feet above, right in the path of the jet stream, as they call it, and the main routes used by airports coming into europe. they have said they hoped to have the airport opened if the weather cleared sometime early in the morning. now they will assess the situation again at 7:00 local time saturday mornin...

They are arriving in country. he made that announcement after a long and detailed review of the policy. remember the conversations in the situation room. the president saying we can't be there in perpetuity. although the deadline for the beginning of withdrawal of american forces from afghanistan, a lot believe that will be negligible at the beginning of that withdrawal stage. >> mike, thanks for the update from the white house. want to continue the coverage on the volcano in iceland, the havoc it is having on travel plans around the world to. heathrow airport. tom is live. there's an update...

A couple of transatlantic jets went back to the united states. as far as british aviation authorities are concerned, they are saying it won't be until perhaps midnight at the very earliest that the airports can reopen. here at heathrow, jets all over the tarmac, you can probably see them behind me. it's much the same in northern and western europe, low countries, scandinavia, northern germany, france, airports waiting and waiting for the news of dissipation of that volcanic ash. probably the busiest area in the world for commercial traffic. many thousands of passengers stranded at airports all...

Lots to talk about there, and the president heading to florida in the middle of a controversy. thank you, tom. well, overseas the big travel headache is not one we see every day. major delays there because of a volcano. volcanic ash from iceland's erupting volcano is grounding flights across northern europe and to and from the united states, by the way. look at all the planes that are on the ground now at london's heathrow airport. just that airport alone. not really a visibility prb prob. it's the ash that can actually clog the engines. nbc's tom aspell joins us from london. tom, i hope you...

I can't describe how thick and powerful this ash is. >> well, you're right, monica. it's very dangerous. at the moment i must say it's clear skies over britain. you can't really tell that there's a problem. but there is a cloud of volcanic ash, and it's up to three miles high. and it is drifting slowly south and east from ireland. britain and holland, as you mentioned, have closed their airspaces to all but emergency flights after deeming that cloud a threat to aviation. and tens of thousands of passengers are stranded at airports across europe. you know, volcanic dust can melt inside aircraft...