Ash grounds planes

New Zealand yesterday, stranding thousands of people after plumes drifted across the Pacific.
Strong winds have carried the ash clouds some 9 400 km across the Pacific Ocean to New Zealand since Chile’s Puyehue volcano erupted more than a week ago, and they are now entering Australian airspace. National carrier Qantas cancelled all flights to and from the southeastern island of Tasmania and all flights to and from Christchurch, Queenstown and Wellington in neighbouring New Zealand.
It later extended the groundings to all flights to and from the southern Australian city of Melbourne and those to and from New Zealand’s Auckland from 6.00pm (0800 GMT) yesterday, affecting around 8 000 passengers in total.
No intercontinental flights were immediately hit as none were scheduled to land in Melbourne yesterday evening.
“We believe that it’s absolutely the right thing to ground these services.
“We will put them back up in the air as soon as possible but it’s a safety first approach for our customers,” Qantas spokeswoman Olivia Wirth told ABC radio. – AFP.