Scientists are in a race to protect airlines and their passengers from a looming ash cloud crisis as volcanologists warn that two Icelandic volcanoes are primed to erupt.
Their hopes rest on a test of infrared camera technology, which they claim will allow pilots to steer around clouds of volcanic debris. A tonne of ash was flown to Luton airport at the weekend in preparation for an airborne test of the imaging system aboard an airliner.
Volcanologists collected the ash from a glacier on the Eyjafjallajökull volcano after its eruption in 2010, which grounded aircraft for six days. Ten million