Plane swerves to avoid volcanic plume

The contrails of Sigurðsson's plane curving around the plume.

The contrails of Sigurðsson's plane curving around the plume. Photo: Jón Viðar Sig­urðsson

“It happened in a flash,” recalls Jón Viðar Sig­urðsson, of the time he flew over Grímsvötn volcano when an eruption began.

“I had been in the air for about half an hour when this picture was taken,” he continues. “By that time, the plume has reached all the way up [around 10,000 m]. It all happened very quickly. The ice is very thin at Grímsvötn.”

The picture above, taken by Sig­urðsson, clearly shows how the aircraft swerved around the volcanic plume caused by the 1998 eruption of Grímsvötn.

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