A gigantic ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano created further air travel mayhem in the European region on Friday. The degree of chaos is such, which had not been seen ever since September 11 attacks. Due to this volcanic ash cloud, a whole lot of passengers had been left helpless and marooned.

Almost 17,000 flights had been anticipated to be called off on Friday, following the dangers that these poisonous clouds posed. The flight cancellations have been made by airport authorities in France, Britain, Germany, and throughout the European region until at least Saturday.

A spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Authority, and Britain's Aviation Regulator stated that Europe was most likely facing its biggest air travel disturbance ever since 9/11 happened.

It seems that the present scenario is even worse than 9/11 because the disruption, which has been created by this volcanic smoke is drastically affecting the air travel industry and the people.

Incidences such as these handicap the smooth services and make it difficult to bring everything under control. The number of flights which operate throughout Europe, have been drastically affected, creating an enormous loss to the industry and at the same time making journey of travelers even more difficult.

Almost similar situation had come across when 9/11 happened. U. S. airspace had been shut for three consecutive days and European airlines were forced to stop all transatlantic services.

Vulcanologists say that the ash cloud could cause troubles to air traffic for almost 6 months if it continued to erupt, although even if it is short-lived the monetary impact on airlines could be large.

This is another blow on the air travel industry since it had earlier been affected by the economic downturn. Now when it was picking up its business and had started earning well to compensate its losses, this unfortunate incident sprung up.

The volcano started erupting on Wednesday for the second time in one month from below the Eyjafjallajokull glacier, tossing a cloud of ash that measured almost 6 to 11 km blown up into the air.