Berlin airports shut down as ash cloud approaches

Berlin - The two airports serving the German capital Berlin were ordered closed down Thursday evening as a safety precaution as a cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland approached.

The Tegel and Schoenefeld airports were ordered to shut down by aviation safety authorities, airport spokesman Leif Erichsen said.

The announcement came shortly after the airport of the northern city of Hamburg, about 250 kilometers west of Berlin, became the first to halt all takeoffs and landings.

The airports in Germany became the latest in a string of airport closures around Europe on Thursday due to the ash being spewed from the volcano near Eyjafjallojoekull glacier on Iceland.

Germany's Transportation Ministry in Berlin said there would be no fixed periods of closure of the country's airports, but that rather the DFS aviation safety authority had been instructed to be flexible in ordering any bans on takeoffs and landings, depending on the situation.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/318964,berlin-airports-shut-down-as-ash-cloud-approaches.html.