Ash cloud restricts Irish flights for 4th day

(News Today) - Ash from an Icelandic volcano shut down airports in Ireland for a fourth day Friday, disrupting travel plans for thousands of passengers.

The airports in Shannon, Sligo, Knock, Galway and Kerry were closed to flights through 1 p.m. local time, the Irish Aviation Authority said. The airport in Donegal was expected to resume flights at midday.

"The restrictions are required as the increased level of recent volcanic activity has created a massive ash cloud stretching 1,000 miles long and 700 miles wide," the IAA said.

"While the northerly winds are keeping the bulk of the cloud out in the Atlantic, the increased size of the cloud is encroaching on Irish airspace along the west coast of Ireland."

The volcano, which erupted last month, has been expelling denser and coarser ash higher into the atmosphere since Tuesday afternoon, the IAA said.

That ash is being carried down from Iceland toward Ireland and the United Kingdom, causing the flight problems, it said.

Airports in Ireland, Northern Ireland and western Scotland were shut earlier this week because of the ash.

Flights between North America and Europe are still permitted to fly over the ash cloud at higher altitudes, the IAA said.

"The IAA appreciates the difficulties facing passengers and airlines at this time," it said in a statement. "Decisions are taken solely on the grounds of safety."

It urged passengers to contact their airlines for the latest information on their flights.

Volcanic ash is a serious hazard to aircraft, reducing visibility, damaging flight controls and ultimately causing jet engines to fail.

It is the first time the ash had caused problems for British and Irish airspace since last month, when it forced the shutdown of airports across the European continent for six days and stranded tens of thousands of passengers around the world.

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Incident raises questions about no-fly list

(News Today) - The no-fly list is supposed to help keep terrorists off planes, so when the Times Square car bombing suspect was able to board a flight anyway, it put the process under immense scrutiny.

The government has already made changes to the system.

On Wednesday, it began telling airlines to check updated no-fly lists within two hours of the time they are issued, not within 24 hours, as under the previous directive.

It happened after Faisal Shahzad, a 30-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen from Pakistan, was arrested at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport late Monday after boarding a flight bound for Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

His name had been put on an updated no-fly list, which identifies people who pose a credible threat to aviation security, earlier in the day.

Shahzad made his reservation by phone as he drove to the airport just hours before the flight, investigators said. When he paid for his ticket in cash at the ticket counter, the airline had not refreshed its no-fly information, so his name did not raise any red flags, a senior counterterrorism official said.

Emirates, the airline that sold Shahzad the ticket, said it followed all the rules.

"Emirates is in full compliance with all passenger check-in procedures in the U.S. and works closely with both the Transport Security Administration (TSA) and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agencies to update security watch lists on a regular and timely basis," the airline said in a statement.

The incident appeared to be "the quirk of time" for which backup measures exist, said Frances Townsend, a CNN national security contributor and homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush.

For such cases, the system was designed to include "necessary and built-in redundancy," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said during a briefing.

If a name is added to the no-fly list and an airline misses it, U.S. Customs and Border Protection can look at a flight's final passenger manifest and identify anything that a carrier may have overlooked, Gibbs said.

To understand how the process works, air travelers should know that there are actually several lists airlines check, some of which may overlap.

There is the main no-fly list, whose purpose is straightforward: to keep known terrorists off planes, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

The no-fly list, maintained by the National Counterterrorism Center, contains thousands of names, and it ballooned after the failed bombing of a U.S.-bound jetliner December 25, Townsend said.

There are also several much larger watch lists maintained by various government agencies that may focus on people who have overstayed their U.S. visas or are flagged because there's concern about their affiliations, Townsend said. Some of those lists may have hundreds of thousands of names.

When you buy a seat on a plane in advance using a credit card, which is how most people purchase their tickets, your name will be put "through a scrub" -- checked against the lists -- 24 hours before your flight, Townsend said.

There's another check when you get your boarding pass, which may alert the gate agent to a possible problem. Then, about an hour or so before the plane takes off, the National Targeting Center, run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, gets the final passenger list. This is how Shahzad's name was finally flagged.

"That's why you have a secondary system with the National Targeting Center, so if something like that should happen, there's a second opportunity for the government to catch this, which is exactly what did happen," Townsend said.

"They now have that manifest of the actual people who not only bought with credit cards but have walked up and bought [a ticket] at the last minute. They have all those names, and they do a second scrub," she said.

The National Targeting Center was established in October 2001 in direct response to the September 11 terrorist attacks, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website.

Meanwhile, there have been questions about why it's up to the airlines, not the government, to check the no-fly list.

The main issue is that the airlines have all the necessary passenger data, so they either have to perform the check themselves or send the data to the government, a costly proposition, Townsend said. She believes that the government will ultimately end up doing the checks in the long run.

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Massive strike paralyzes Greece

Athens, Greece (News Today) - Planes stood still and train services ground to a halt Wednesday as transport workers in Greece joined other public and private sector workers in a second day of demonstrations.

The unions that organized the general strike expected tens of thousands of workers -- teachers, bank employees and doctors, among them -- to amass in central Athens and then march to the parliament building.

Police deployed about 1,700 officers throughout the capital to maintain order.

The workers are protesting cuts in spending that the government says is needed to pull the country out of debt.

The country's parliament is expected to vote on the measures -- which include wage freezes and higher taxes -- by the end of Thursday.

On the first day of the strike, about 2,000 protesters representing teachers from the public sector marched past the finance ministry and parliament on Tuesday.

In central Athens, protesters threw plastic bottles and sticks at riot police.

At another demonstration, members of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) erected large banners near the Parthenon. "People of Europe Rise Up," said one.

A 110 billion euro ($145 billion) aid package for Greece was announced Sunday. Soon after, Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou announced the tough cost-cutting measures to meet European Union and International Monetary Fund conditions on the deal.

The package includes a promise by Greece to cut its budget deficit to 3 percent of gross domestic product, as required by European Union rules, by 2014, according to Papaconstantinou.

The measures, he said, were needed for Greece to secure its financial lifeline.

Greece has a choice between "destruction" and survival, and "we have chosen of course to save the country," Papaconstantinou said.

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Questions surface over Times Square investigation

(News Today) - Questions remained in the days following the dramatic arrest of the Times Square bombing suspect, who was captured only minutes before his plane was due to take off for Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

Faisal Shahzad was able to board Emirates Flight 202 late Monday despite being put on a no-fly list earlier in the day, but at the time of his ticket purchase, the airline had not refreshed its information so his name did not raise any red flags, a senior counterterrorism official said.

Authorities had tailed Shahzad throughout the day, but lost him before he arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, where he was ultimately arrested, the official said.

However, an FBI official responded that surveillance operations are designed with redundancies in place, and that agents had to avoid tipping off Shahzad that he was being followed.

At a Tuesday news conference, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder defended surveillance efforts.

"I was here all yesterday and through much of last night and was aware of the tracking that was going on, and I was never in any fear that we were in danger of losing him," Holder said.

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York, noted that, along with a Nigerian man who tried to bring down a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day, this is the second high-profile incident in recent memory where someone on the U.S. no-fly list has managed to board a plane.

"Whatever went wrong, I hope they get their acts together and correct it," Rangel said. "The good thing about this is that nobody was hurt in either case, but ... someone ought to come up with the answer and see that it doesn't happen again."

Shahzad was arrested shortly before midnight Monday at JFK airport after U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which reviews all flight manifests, caught his name when the airline sent the agency its passenger list, according to the counterterrorism official.

The terror plot may dominate discussions Wednesday as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg travels to Washington for a previously scheduled Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on terrorism.

Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine and ranking member of the committee, has already expressed concerns.

"A key question for me is why this suspect was allowed to board the plane in the first place," Collins said, according to the New York Times. "There appears to be a troubling gap between the time they had his name and the time he got on the plane."

Rep. Pete Hoekstra, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN that U.S. intelligence efforts have to be better.

"Being lucky can't be our national security strategy," Hoekstra said. "We were lucky on Christmas Day. We were lucky last week."

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Pakistan drone strategy originated with Bush, official says

Washington (News Today) - When the latest apparent U.S. drone strike was conducted this week against militants in Pakistan, the obvious question appeared to be: Did the United States get a "big fish" in the Taliban or al Qaeda organizations?

But a U.S. counterterrorism official says that's now the wrong question to ask, and chances are those hit were not major players. He wouldn't discuss the specifics of the latest strike, but with the official backing of his bosses, he sought to explain how U.S. strategy has changed in the crucial effort to attack targets inside Pakistan with missiles fired from drones.

The plan now is to attack a broader set of terrorist targets far beyond the original effort to strike and kill top al Qaeda leaders, the official said.

The strategy originated not with President Obama but with the previous administration, he said.

Although the United States is the only country in the region known to have the ability to launch missiles from drones, which are controlled remotely, U.S. officials normally do not comment on suspected drone strikes.

The more expansive target set was approved in the final months of the Bush administration in late 2008 but has been stepped up under the Obama White House, the official said. It is seen as a key strategy to help protect the growing number of U.S. forces in neighboring Afghanistan from insurgents operating in Pakistan's border region.

Drone-launched missiles are now hitting lower-level al Qaeda and Taliban personnel, camps, training areas, bomb makers, buildings and other targets in the remote region.

"You've had an expanded target set for time now, and given the danger these groups pose and their relative inaccessibility, these kinds of strikes -- precise and effective -- have become almost like the cannon fire of this war. They're no longer extraordinary or even unusual," the official said.

"The enemy, to be sure, has lost commanders, operational planners, weapons specialists, facilitators and more. But they've also lost fighters and trainers, the kinds of people who have killed American and allied forces in Afghanistan," he said. "Just because they're not big names doesn't mean they don't kill. They do. Their facilities -- where they prepare, rest and ready weapons -- are legitimate targets, too."

Success in using the drones depends on larger intelligence efforts, said Frances Fragos Townsend, a former homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush and now a CNN intelligence analyst. Drones are just one tool in larger strategy, she said.

It requires other tools -- intelligence, military and diplomatic -- to support it, she said.

The administration has been sensitive to accusations that a large number of civilians have been killed since the stepped-up raids began. Statistics kept by the New America Foundation indicate that 30 percent of those who died in drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004 were not militants.

The U.S. counterterrorism official disputed that, saying, "We believe the number of non-combatant casualties since this campaign intensified is under 30 -- those being people who were near terrorist targets, often by choice -- while the total for militants taken off the battlefield exceeds 500."

The official said those figures are based not only on intelligence but also on visual observations before and after strikes.

"The terrorists, who have a real incentive to spread stories of atrocities from the air, haven't done so because they can't do so," the official said. "They'd have to produce names, dates, photos and witnesses, the kinds of things you see almost instantly if the coalition makes a mistake in Afghanistan. But you just don't see that sort of thing coming out of the tribal areas. Instead, even press accounts from the area speak of militants cordoning off places that have been struck and of local and foreign fighters being hit."

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Russian pilots ordered out of Iran

(News Terupdate) - Iran's transportation minister says the Islamic republic is sending home Russian pilots who fly for Iranian airlines, according to local reports.

"Sending back the foreign pilots is on the agenda of the ministry of road and transportation and the issue is being implemented now," Transportation Minister Hamid Behbahani told the semi-official Fars News Agency on Monday.

Behbahani added the Russian-made Tupolev 154 planes -- Soviet-era aircraft operated by several Iranian airlines -- will gradually be replaced by newer passenger planes. It was not immediately who would supply the new planes.

In March, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued an order to expel the foreign pilots within a two-month time period. Following that announcement, Behbahani said Iran should not employ foreign pilots when there are enough skilled Iranian pilots, Fars reported.

The report did not say how many Russian pilots are flying in Iran, or how many Tupolevs are in operation in the country.

Iran has a recent history of plane crashes and mishaps with Russian-made Tupolevs. Most recently, 46 people were injured in January when a Taban Air plane caught fire after landing at Mashhad International Airport in eastern Iran.

In 2009, a Caspian Airlines flight crashed in a field near the northern city of Qavzin, killing more than 160 people.

The Tupolev 154 is essentially banned in the West because it does not comply with European noise and pollution regulations, but it has a safer-than-average accident record, aviation safety experts told CNN after the Caspian crash.

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Doctors: Sleep drug likely not cause of plane suspect's odd behavior

(News Terupdate) - A man accused of disrupting a trans-Atlantic flight by claiming he was carrying explosives also told the federal marshal onboard that he had taken the popular sleep aid Ambien, according to court documents.

Ambien, also known as zolpidem, can cause extreme side effects such as e-mailing, cooking and driving while asleep, according to the Food and Drug Administration and published medical research. However, sleep experts say the behavior exhibited by the suspect, Derek Stansberry, 27, is inconsistent with the known side effects of the sleep medication.

Ambien is a prescription drug used to treat insomnia. It belongs to a class of medication called sedative-hypnotics, which slow activity in the brain to allow sleep.

There have been reports of individuals making and eating food, talking on the phone and having sex while not fully awake after taking Ambien with alcohol or other medications, according to the FDA.

Doctors and Sanofi-aventis, the maker of Ambien, say it's imperative the medication be taken as prescribed, which includes not mixing Ambien with alcohol or other drugs.

Ambien can increase the likelihood for confusional arousal, a state when the brain is half asleep and half awake, say sleep doctors. Usually the person will speak in garble that doesn't fit the context of his or her environment, said Dr. Michel Cramer Bornemann, a lead investigator of Sleep Forensics Associates.

For example, a 30-year-old man might wake up saying "I don't want to go to school," although he was a student 10 years ago.

"The behaviors this individual described are not consistent with Ambien's side effects," Cramer Bornemann said regarding Stansberry's case.

"In a person experiencing confusional arousal because of Ambien, you wouldn't expect to hear comments from that person that seem to fit into the context of the environment that they are in," he said. "In this case, a man on board a plane is talking about false passports, bombs, dynamite and blowing up a plane. This seems really at first glance, inconsistent with what we know of Ambien's side effects."

This is because the suspect's comments were "oriented to time, location and place," Cramer Bornemann said.

Dr. Michael Breus agreed. Breus is the clinical director of the sleep division at Southwest Spine and Sports in Scottsdale, Arizona.

"If you took eight Ambien pills, you'd be slurring your speech. You'd sound like you're drunk. You wouldn't be coherent to say, 'There's a bomb in my backpack and I have a pressure switch,' " he said.

Breus expressed skepticism that Ambien alone could have triggered such a behavior.

"There had to be an interaction effect or he drank alcohol or there was some other drug," he said. "We also don't know his mental health history. If he had significant history of mental health problems, he could have had a psychotic break."

Stansberry, of Riverview, Florida, has been charged with two felony counts of interfering with flight crew members and knowingly giving false information about possession of an explosive device. Stansberry told authorities he was carrying dynamite and a detonation device.

On a Delta flight from Paris, France, to Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday, Stansberry allegedly made threats of a bomb and told the air marshal he had taken eight tablets of Ambien. After the plane landed, he told FBI investigators he had taken one Ambien pill, a change from his earlier comment, according to court documents.

Stansberry, a former Air Force intelligence specialist, was ordered Wednesday to undergo a competency evaluation.

Competency tests ordered for suspect in airline flight diversion

Like other sedative-hypnotic sleep aids, including Lunesta and Sonata, Ambien mimics neurotransmitters and binds to a specific brain chemical receptor, promoting sleep.

Sleep doctors do not recommend taking sleep aids like Ambien before a flight, although it is a common practice. Breus recommended taking the pill in a predictable environment, such as one's bedroom, rather than an airplane.

"Ambien and all the medications like it are serious medications," he said. "You're supposed to take them and turn out the lights."

Sanofi-aventis, in a statement e-mailed to CNN.com, said:

"Sanofi-aventis is committed to patient health and safety [and] treats these matters with the highest degree of importance. It is important to note that Ambien or Ambien CR is not appropriate for every individual.

"Patients should fully disclose alcohol and drug use with their health care professional, and not consume alcohol while they are taking a prescription sleep medication."

Since the introduction of Ambien in 1992, more than 230 million prescriptions have been filled.

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Volcanic ash closes some UK airspace

London, England (News Today) - Britain's Civil Aviation Authority announced that some airspace over Northern Ireland and Scotland would be closed Wednesday because ash emissions from Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull grew heavier and dipped further south.

Scottish airports in Glasgow, Prestwick, Inverness, Stornoway, Benbecula, Tiree, Islay, Barra and Campbeltown will close at 7 a.m. GMT (3 a.m. ET), along with the airport in Derry, Northern Ireland, the CAA said.

The Inverness airport will reopen at 1 p.m. GMT (9 a.m. ET), but Belfast City and Belfast International Airports will close at that time. All the airports are expected to reopen at 7 p.m. GMT (3 p.m. ET).

The CAA said that airports in Edinburgh and Carlisle, Scotland, and Blackpool, Liverpool and Manchester in England were expected to remain open. Ash is expected to be near those airports, however, and the authority recommended that passengers check with their airlines before arriving at the airport.

The Irish Aviation Authority had grounded all flights into and out of Ireland between 6 a.m. GMT and 12 p.m. GMT (2 a.m. and 8 a.m. ET) Tuesday because of ash.

European aviation officials closed airports across the continent for six days last month because of an ash cloud from the erupting Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland.

The disruption to flights Tuesday came, as European Union transport ministers met in Brussels to discuss ways of improving coordination between member states in the event of another volcanic ash crisis.

Ministers agreed to work on a series of measure to improve future cooperation, according to a press release.

These include working towards establishing a "single European regulator for a single European sky" and working with national authorities to draw up guidance to ensure uniform application of rules for passengers.

EU Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas said: "Let's be clear about one thing. This is going to continue to happen. It might be next week. It might be in 20 years. But it will happen again; and volcanoes do not obey rules. So we need to be faster and more flexible in our response."

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Understanding the new airline passenger protection rules

(News Terupdate) - You've heard passengers' horror stories about sitting for hours in a parked metal tube with crying babies, clogged toilets and rationed snacks.

The Department of Transportation hopes they will become faded memories for air travelers after new, more aggressive passenger protection rules go into effect Thursday.

The DOT's tarmac delay rule subjects airlines to stiff fines if passengers are stuck on the tarmac for more than three hours. It was prompted by a string of long delays dating back to December 2006, which DOT documents say caused passengers "undue discomfort and inconvenience."

The tipping point for DOT Secretary Ray LaHood came in August 2009, when 47 airline passengers were trapped overnight on a tarmac in Rochester, Minnesota.

Passengers reported subsisting on rationed Pringles potato chips and said the toilet stopped working.

"There was no common sense used, no decency towards people that were sitting on a plane," LaHood said Tuesday at a news conference.

The tarmac delay rule has been widely discussed and debated since it was announced in December, but it is only one of a series of new DOT regulations designed to protect commercial airline passengers.

Here are a few more details travelers should know:

Expect a response to complaints to airlines

The DOT requires airlines to acknowledge a customer complaint within 30 days and provide a response within 60 days that addresses the specifics of that complaint.

Airlines must provide passengers with an e-mail address or online contact form, as well as a mailing address for filing complaints. The contact information must be available on carrier websites and e-ticket confirmations. Airlines don't have to listen to your complaints over the telephone.

International travelers may have to wait longer

The three-hour tarmac time limit applies only to domestic flights. On delayed international flights, the DOT will allow U.S. carriers to determine their own time limits. The airlines must define those limits and include them in tarmac delay contingency plans posted on their websites.The agency says that less frequent international service would mean more inconvenience to consumers should those flights be cancelled.

Airlines' tarmac delay contingency plans for all flights must assure passengers working restrooms and "adequate food and potable water" within two hours of leaving the gate or touching down. The DOT said snacks such as pretzels and granola bars would be considered adequate. The airlines are also required to provide medical attention, if needed.

Safety, security, air traffic exceptions may apply

Exceptions to the tarmac delay limits may apply if the pilot sees a safety or security issue with returning passengers to the terminal. The DOT cites weather, air traffic control or a government agency directive as possible issues.

Air traffic control may also override the rule if it determines that getting passengers off the plane would create a major disruption in airport operations.

Unrealistic scheduling and chronic delays prohibited

Large airlines can be penalized for unrealistic scheduling, which may include a frequently canceled flight or one that is considered "chronically delayed." The designation applies to flights that operate at least 10 times a month and arrive more than 30 minutes late more than half the time.

Carriers with flights that are chronically delayed for more than four consecutive 30-day periods would be subject to penalties.

Beginning at the end of July, large airlines will have to provide flight delay information on their websites for all domestic flights early in the purchasing process.

"We were concerned that if we simply permitted carriers to display flight delay information at any stage before a consumer buys a ticket, it could result in passengers not having access to that information until just before they click the 'buy now' button," the DOT document explains.

Customer service and compliance required

The DOT also requires airlines to develop customer service plans to address situations not covered in their contracts with passengers. Airlines are expected to audit their compliance and report the results to the DOT.

How rules are enforced, penalties determined

Civil penalties of up to $27,500 per passenger would be paid to the government, not to passengers. That amount is the maximum civil penalty for large airlines for violating any aviation consumer rule.

DOT spokesman Bill Mosley told CNN in an e-mail that the department monitors airline compliance by reviewing consumer complaints and calls to the airline, and by making onsite visits.

"The Department's Aviation Enforcement Office considers a number of factors in determining the civil penalty it would seek," he said. Among those factors are the harm caused by the violations, the alleged violator's compliance record, economic conditions, ability to pay, how long the violations continued and the strength of the case.

For more information, search for docket dot-ost-2007-0022 on www.regulations.gov.

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Officials: Suspect in diverted flight used to be in Air Force

(News Terupdate) - A man detained after claiming he had explosives on a trans-Atlantic flight Tuesday served in the U.S. Air Force as an intelligence specialist for four years, Air Force officials said.

Delta Air Lines Flight 273, which was heading from Paris, France, to Atlanta, Georgia, was diverted to Bangor, Maine, on Tuesday afternoon after the man made the explosives claim, law enforcement officials said.

Two law enforcement officials identified the passenger as Derek Stansberry of Florida. He held the rank of senior airman and was on active duty from June 2005 to June 2009, according to Air Force officials.

Federal air marshals on board the flight took Stansberry into custody, Delta spokeswoman Susan Elliot said.

In addition to explosives, Stansberry claimed he had false documents, the law enforcement officials said. Investigators had found no explosives so far, they said.

Stansberry was not flagged on any databases, they said. The FBI is leading the investigation with assistance from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Transportation Security Administration and the Bangor Police Department, the officials said.

Stansberry trained at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas, and also was stationed at Hurlburt Field in Okaloosa County, Florida, according to Air Force officials. He served in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to service records.

Delta's Paul Skrbec said the airline was putting the diverted flight's passengers in a hotel overnight and providing them with a meal and vouchers for future travel. Skrbec said they would leave in the same plane that brought them to Bangor.

Passengers said they were unaware of any disruption, but that the flight crew moved all the passengers forward in the partially filled cabin.

"For some time, we were not told anything," passenger Adithya Sastryi said. "But the pilot came on and told us, 'There has been a security threat,' and that they're trying to get it under control."

Passenger Sandy Zusmann said passengers were first told to buckle up because the plane was heading into turbulence.

"About 45 minutes later to an hour later, they came on and they said, 'As some of you may know, we had a security threat on the flight. That's now under control, but we're going to ask everybody to stay in their seats for the remainder of the flight,'" Zusmann said.

The jet landed in Maine at about 3:30 p.m. ET.

Zusmann said the flight crew members were calm and professional.

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Tarmac delay rule to go into effect this week

Washington (News Terupdate) - Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is expected to discuss Tuesday the new tarmac delay rule that goes into effect before the end of the week.

The rule, set to take effect Thursday, is designed to prevent planes on domestic routes from sitting on the tarmac for more than three hours with passengers on board.

Airlines who violate the rule could face fines of up to $27,500 per passenger, the maximum allowed for violating any aviation consumer rule.

"Passengers on flights delayed on the tarmac have a right to know they will not be held aboard a plane indefinitely," LaHood said in a statement last week.

"This is an important consumer protection, and we believe it should take effect as planned."

On Thursday, the Department of Transportation denied requests from JetBlue, Delta, Continental, American and US Airways for exceptions to the rule, which were prompted by runway construction at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, one of the nation's most congested airports.

Delta and American Airlines also requested exemptions at JFK, and Continental Airlines followed with its own request that added neighboring LaGuardia and Newark Liberty International airports.

US Airways asked for a similar exemption at its hub at Philadelphia International Airport, arguing that "it shares the same airspace, is part of the same air traffic control center (New York Center), and has the same congestion challenges as JFK, LaGuardia and Newark."

In its ruling, the department indicated that it may take the construction at JFK into account "when deciding whether to pursue enforcement action for failing to comply with the rule and the amount of the fine, if any, to seek as a result of noncompliance."

Airlines could re-route or reschedule JFK flights to minimize congestion, the department said.

Airline passenger advocate Kate Hanni, founder of FlyersRights.org and a supporter of the tarmac delay rule, is pleased the exemptions were denied.

"We are both thrilled and gratified that DOT has taken a hard stand against long tarmac delays as a safety issue. We believe that 700 million travelers a year will benefit knowing they can reasonably predict the outcome of their flight knowing they cannot be held longer than 3 hours in a sealed metal tube!" Hanni said via e-mail last week.

Another passenger advocate, David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, is opposed to the three-hour rule, stating that "placing time deadlines on safety-related activities should never occur."

The rule "creates not only safety concerns for passengers, but misery in the from of many more cancelled flights," he said.

Stempler and other opponents of the rule say airlines are likely to cancel more flights during the busy summer travel season to avoid penalties incurred by long delays.

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Ex-Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega extradited to France

(News Terupdate) - Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega arrived Tuesday morning in France -- where he was extradited to stand trial on charges that he laundered drug money.

Noriega arrived in Paris aboard an Air France commercial flight from Miami, Florida.

US. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed a surrender warrant Monday, clearing the way for Noriega's extradition after he spent more than 20 years in a U.S. federal prison.

The move came as a shock to the Miami attorneys who have defended Noriega for more than 20 years.

"I would have hoped, if an order was signed, that the State Department would have the courtesy to respond to his lawyers and tell them an order was signed," said Frank Rubino, Noriega's criminal defense attorney.

"I'm in total shock they did this without the common courtesy of a phone call. They owe us, as his lawyers, to keep us informed."

For the past two and a half years, Noriega and his attorneys had argued that the United States was violating the Geneva Convention by not sending him back to Panama, where he was seized by U.S. troops after the United States invaded Panama in 1989.

U.S. federal courts ruled against him.

His last shot had been an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which rejected hearing his case in January.

U.S. forces removed the ex-dictator from office during Operation Nifty Package, the 1989 invasion of Panama. Noriega had fled his offices and tried to seek sanctuary in the Vatican Embassy in Panama City.

U.S. troops set up large speakers around the compound, blaring music at all hours, a psychological ploy to rattle the general.

He eventually surrendered on January 3, 1990, and was quickly escorted to the United States for civilian trial.

After his drug conviction, Noriega was given POW status. His federal sentence, originally for 30 years, ended in September 2007 after time off for good behavior.

In Panama, Noriega is wanted for the murder of a political rival.

Panama has requested his extradition, but the U.S. is honoring France's extradition request instead.

France has already convicted Noriega in absentia for money laundering but has promised him a new trial.

While in U.S. custody, Noriega suffered from prostate cancer and had a stroke.

Last month, in an exclusive interview with CNN, Noriega's grandson Jean-Manuel Beauchamp said that he had grown to admire his grandfather. He was only 4 months old when the U.S. invaded Panama.

"When I was a kid, I didn't grow up knowing he was in prison. I thought he was in school," Beauchamp said.

"I've spent quality time with him, but not private time," he said, alluding to prison security and the monitoring of conversations. "He's the smartest man I know. He's so friendly, outgoing, knowledgeable. He's always looking to teach or give advice."

But the U.S. government has portrayed Noriega as the ultimate crooked cop -- a man who was paid millions by the Medellin drug cartel in Colombia to protect cocaine and money shipments.

Panamanians remember him as a cruel dictator who was charged with murder and convicted in absentia.

Panama has also said he would get a new trial.

In the meantime, Beauchamp says that his grandfather reads and prays a lot, and still has a soldier's mentality.

"He's ready for anything. He's probably developed strategies, in his own mind, to emotionally prepare. He's been packed for two and a half years, waiting," he said.

But, he added, "The U.S. should be escorting him back to Panama, from where they took him."

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FAA calls for crackdown on cockpit distractions

Washington (News Terupdate) - Airlines should create and enforce policies to ensure that pilots focus on flying their planes safely instead of being distracted by laptop computers and other devices, the Department of Transportation's Federal Aviation Administration said Monday.

The statement referred to the incident in October when pilots of Northwest Airlines Flight 188 overflew their destination by 150 miles because they were using laptop computers for personal activities.

Northwest has a policy prohibiting pilots from using their laptops in the cockpit, and the pilots in the October incident had their licenses revoked. An FAA settlement with the two pilots allows them to reapply for their licenses as soon as August 29.

In its Information for Operators guidance, the FAA notes that any cockpit distraction can be a safety risk, including the use of personal electronic devices for non-flight activities.

"Every aviation professional needs to take the issue of distractions in the cockpit seriously," FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said in the document.

"And when there are two or more professionals on the flight deck, they must hold each other to the highest safety standards. Allowing distractions is unacceptable."

The FAA's Sterile Cockpit Rule prohibits pilots from engaging in any type of distracting behavior during critical phases of flight, including takeoff and landing.

In the guidance announced Monday, the FAA asks airlines to create a "safety culture" in the cockpit through crew training programs.

Although laptop computers and other electronic devices are becoming valuable tools for pilots in their routine duties, "they must only be used in the cockpit if they assist pilots in safely operating an aircraft," the document said.

On October 21, Capt. Timothy B. Cheney and First Officer Richard I. Cole flew their Northwest jet past their destination city of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

They told investigators they used personal laptop computers during the flight, in violation of company policy, and lost track of time. They became aware of their plane's position only after a flight attendant asked about the landing time.

The Airbus A320 was flying at 37,000 feet over the Denver, Colorado, area at 5:56 p.m. when air traffic controllers lost radio contact for more than an hour, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a report.

Northwest Flight 188 had departed San Diego, California, en route to Minnesota carrying 144 passengers, the two pilots and three flight attendants.

Cheney was hired in 1985 and has more than 20,000 hours flight time, while Cole was hired in 1997 and has about 11,000 hours of flight time, the NTSB report said.

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Disruptive plane passenger taken into custody

(News Terupdate) - A Delta Air Lines flight was rerouted Friday morning after a passenger threatened to blow up the plane, screamed "get behind me Satan" and sprayed passengers with water from a beverage-cart bottle, according to a complaint filed in federal court.

Flight attendants and other passengers on Delta Flight 2148 struggled to restrain the "erratic and dangerous" passenger with seat belts and plastic handcuffs while pilots rerouted the plane to Albuquerque, New Mexico, FBI Special Agent Benedict R. Bourgeois said.

The plane, which was flying from Los Angeles, California, to Tampa, Florida, landed in Albuquerque at 3:37 a.m. ET, the Transportation Security Administration said.

The passenger, Stanley Dwayne Sheffield, was taken into custody shortly afterward.

Law enforcement swept the plane and found nothing suspicious, TSA said. The flight landed in Tampa at about 9:20 a.m. ET, more than three hours after its scheduled arrival.

The complaint said Sheffield, 46, was heading back to his first-class seat from the plane's bathroom when he grabbed a 2-liter water bottle from a drink cart, began spraying passengers and shouted "get behind me Satan."

The complaint said that after a flight attendant asked him to return to his seat Sheffield threatened: "I am going to bring this plane down. ... You need to land this plane or I'm going to blow it up [and] I will blow up this plane and take you all with me."

Passengers "engaged Sheffield in a struggle and restrained him" when he approached the cockpit door, the complaint said.

CNN affiliate KRQE-TV in Albuquerque reported the passenger was a 46-year-old man who allegedly made threats, damaged a bathroom and attempted to enter the flight deck when seven passengers restrained him.

The man was treated for minor injuries he sustained during the struggle and later was turned over to the FBI, the report said.

The TV station reported that the FBI didn't believe the incident was terrorism-related but didn't know if drugs or alcohol were involved.

Delta spokeswoman Susan Elliott said the airline was grateful to passengers for assisting the crew.

The incident comes a day after federal agents removed "a potential person of interest" from a Delta flight during a fuel stop in Puerto Rico, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said. The passenger was taken into custody for questioning.

Delta said the flight was en route from Dakar, Senegal, to New York and continued to New York after the passenger was removed. Law enforcement sources said the passenger is Gambian.

Neither Delta nor the agency provided further details.

A law enforcement source said the passenger did not pose any kind of security threat. He came under suspicion because someone made a false accusation against him, the source said.

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Agency denies tarmac delay exemption requests

(News Terupdate) - Airlines hoping for exemptions at some airports to the tarmac delay rule going into effect next week are out of luck.

The Department of Transportation denied requests Thursday from JetBlue, Delta, Continental, American and US Airways for exceptions to the rule, which were prompted by runway construction at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, one of the nation's most congested airports.

"Passengers on flights delayed on the tarmac have a right to know they will not be held aboard a plane indefinitely," U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement. "This is an important consumer protection, and we believe it should take effect as planned."

In its ruling, the department indicated that it may take the construction at JFK into account "when deciding whether to pursue enforcement action for failing to comply with the rule and the amount of the fine, if any, to seek as a result of noncompliance."

"We thank the Department for recognizing that there are unique challenges at New York's Kennedy and will take that into account when deciding whether to pursue civil penalties," American Airlines spokesman Tim Smith said in response to the ruling.

Airlines could re-route or reschedule JFK flights to minimize congestion, the department said.

"We are prepared to comply with the original ruling," Delta Air Lines spokesman Anthony Black said.

The rule, set to go into effect April 29, is designed to prevent planes on domestic routes from sitting on the tarmac for more than three hours with passengers on board. Airlines who violate the rule could face fines of up to $27,500 per passenger, the maximum allowed for violating any aviation consumer rule.

In March, JetBlue Airways asked for an exemption to the rule at JFK, where an extensive construction project has closed the airport's busiest runway.

Delta and American Airlines also requested exemptions at JFK, and Continental Airlines followed with its own request that added neighboring LaGuardia and Newark Liberty International airports.

US Airways asked for a similar exemption at its hub at Philadelphia International Airport, arguing that "it shares the same airspace, is part of the same air traffic control center (New York Center), and has the same congestion challenges as JFK, LaGuardia and Newark."

Airline passenger advocate Kate Hanni, founder of FlyersRights.org and a supporter of the tarmac delay rule, is pleased the exemptions were denied.

"We are both thrilled and gratified that DOT has taken a Hard Stand against long tarmac delays as a safety issue. We believe that 700 million travelers a year will benefit knowing they can reasonably predict the outcome of their flight knowing they cannot be held longer than 3 hours in a sealed metal tube!" Hanni said via e-mail.

Another passenger advocate, David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, is opposed to the three-hour rule, stating that "placing time deadlines on safety related activities should never occur."

The rule "creates not only safety concerns for passengers, but misery in the from of many more cancelled flights," he said.

Stempler and other opponents of the rule say airlines are likely to cancel more flights during the busy summer travel season to avoid penalties incurred by long delays.

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Iceland closes airports for first time due to volcanic ash cloud

(News Terupdate) - Iceland will close two airports on Friday for the first time, a week after ash from an Icelandic volcano forced the shutdown of airspace over much of Europe and stranded thousands of passengers around the world, the Icelandic aviation authority announced Thursday.

The Keflavik International Airport and Reykjavík International Airport will be closed beginning early Friday morning, the aviation authority said, according to a statement on the Keflavik airport's website.

Though the ash cloud originated in Iceland, the country's airports have been spared from closure until now. Strong northwest winds had been blowing ash from the volcano, in the south of Iceland, out to sea and over Europe.

"Now the winds have died down, and the cloud is lingering around Iceland," said Chris Almond, a forecaster with Britain's Met Office, the nation's national weather service.

Two other Icelandic international airports, in Akureyri and Egilsstadir, will stay open to all air traffic, the aviation authority said. The ash cloud is not expected to reach those cities, which are in the north and east of the island nation.

Icelandair announced Thursday that trans-Atlantic passengers from the U.S. and Europe who would have stopped in Keflavik will be rerouted Friday via Glasgow, Scotland.

Icelandair said that passengers traveling to and from Iceland will have the option of being re-routed through the Akureyri airport, a four-hour drive from Reykjavík. The airline is arranging bus travel between Akureyri airport and the Reykjavík Bus Terminal.

Elsewhere in Europe, most airports appeared to be open on Thursday and are expected to be open Friday.

But the cloud still caused flight disruptions Thursday. The British Ministry of Defence temporarily suspended non-essential flying Thursday after volcanic ash was found on some of its Typhoon fast jets.

The closure of so much European airspace for nearly a week left untold numbers of travelers stranded, and it's not clear how long it will take to get everyone home.

Many airlines added or rearranged flights to try to clear the backlog.

At its peak, the crisis affected 1.2 million passengers a day and 29 percent of all global aviation, according to the International Air Transport Association.

It was the worst disruption of air traffic since the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001. Following those attacks, the United States closed its air space for three days, forcing Europe to postpone all transatlantic flights.

The International Air Transport Association estimated earlier this week that the Icelandic volcano crisis cost airlines more than $1.7 billion in lost revenue through Tuesday.

The crisis began after the volcano beneath the Eyjafjallajokull glacier erupted April 14 and sent a cloud of ash into the atmosphere. By the next day that cloud had reached Europe, where authorities quickly closed the airspace over safety fears.

By Tuesday, however, airlines had started to complain that the measures were too restrictive. Ash levels in most parts of Europe, they said, were low enough to allow the safe operation of flights.

Scientists in Iceland said Wednesday the volcano has decreased its ash output by 80 percent compared to the first day of eruption.

Armann Hoskuldsson, a volcanologist at the University of Iceland, told a briefing that the volcano's output is now "insignificant," though it will continue to be active for a while.

That reduction in volcanic activity appeared to be the main reason that flights resumed operating in Europe on Wednesday, along with European countries relaxing their restrictions on flight, according to a spokeswoman for Eurocontrol, an intergovernmental body that manages European air travel.

In Britain, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) issued revised guidance on flying through volcano ash clouds, allowing airlines to conduct their own risk assessments and requiring them to report any ash damage to the authorities.

The 27 countries of the European Union also agreed with Eurocontrol to split the airspace into zones based on their ash content and to allow flights in the unaffected areas, said Spanish Minister of Public Works Jose Blanco.

"Airspace was being closed based on theoretical models, not on facts," said Giovanni Bisignani, director general and CEO of International Air Transport Association. "Test flights by our members showed that the models were wrong."

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Airlines lash out over ash cloud compensation

(News Terupdate) - Recriminations are emerging in the wake of the volcanic ash crisis with airlines expressing anger over passenger compensation rules and demanding financial help for losses caused by what they say was a needless ban on flights.

Michael O'Leary, chief executive of budget carrier Ryanair, has led criticism of European Union regulations that require operators to feed and accommodate stranded passengers, saying his airline has only agreed to pay under duress.

"The events of the last seven days, under which Europe's airlines were prevented from flying by the closure of European airspace highlight how absurd and discriminatory the EU261 regulations are towards Europe's airlines," O'Leary said in a statement.

Ryanair, which sells some flights for less than $10 but charges for extras including baggage, earlier said it would reimburse claims up to the cost of tickets, but later backed down saying it would meet "reasonable" expenses.

European flights back to 100 percent

"While competitor ferry, coach and train operators are obliged to reimburse passengers reasonable expenses, this reimbursement is limited to the ticket price paid to those operators," O'Leary added.

"Yet the airlines are required by regulation to meet potentially unlimited expenses, in circumstances where there has been a catastrophic closure of European airspace over the past seven days, as EU Governments and Regulators wrongly applied a blanket ban on flights over European airspace."

Has the ash situation affected your travels?

His comments follow complaints by airlines and industry bodies that the six-day flight ban imposed by authorities due to ash from and Icelandic volcano, were unduly cautious.

The International Air Transport Authority, which says the ban cost the industry $1.7 billion in lost revenue, called on the European Union to ease the financial burden on airlines.

Giovanni Bisignani, IATA's Director General and CEO, said the volcano crisis was an "act of God" beyond the control of airlines, who are now being victimized by unfair compensation regulations.

"The regulations were never meant for such extra-ordinary situations. It is urgent that the European Commission finds a way to ease this unfair burden," Bisignani said in a statement.

Latest travel developments

British Transport Minister Andrew Adonis said European authorities were considering requests for financial assistance by airlines and defended the flight ban.

"It was not a mistake. The safety authorities have quite properly been making safety their paramount consideration," Adonis told CNN. "Unless we can guarantee the safety of the air traveling public, there will be no planes flying at all."

Was airspace shutdown necessary?

He added: "The European Commission and the European Union is looking at the financial issue in respect of airlines. They are making proposals next week and I will of course be looking at those proposals."

Adonis also urged passengers to pursue claims against airlines.

"Passengers have right if they are with EU carriers to be re-routed, which gives them a ticket home and and food and accommodation in the period that they were unable to travel. These rights are enshrined in EU regulations and passengers should exercise them," he said.

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Q&A: Who gets to fly first?

(News Terupdate) - With more flights beginning to take off on schedule, airlines are attempting to clear the backlog of passengers who have been waiting for days because of the volcanic ash cloud over Europe.

But with tens of thousands waiting to travel, there are questions over who gets to go first and how long the delays will last.

How are airlines prioritizing ticket allocation?
Other than a few special cases, most airlines are prioritizing those with pre-existing tickets for scheduled flights. In some cases, empty seats on these are being filled by customers with urgent travel needs. Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific says it is giving priority to unaccompanied minors and students heading back to the UK to sit exams. Singapore Airlines is fast tracking those with "special needs," the elderly and those with infants or young children. Rochelle Turner, head of vacation research for consumer watchdog Which?, says any prioritizing is at the discretion of individual flight operators. "The elderly, the sick, frequent flyers -- it's entirely up to the airline who goes first."

Do I need to do anything if I have a ticket on a scheduled flight?
All airlines are advising customers to double check whether flights are going ahead before heading to airports. British Airways is even urging customers with tickets on scheduled departures to consider delaying their travel plans to free up space on planes to allow delayed passengers to travel. In most cases, passengers who hold tickets for a flight due to take off as scheduled should be fine. Says Turner, it is still advisable to call the airline to confirm or check-in online.

What if my flight was cancelled?
All airlines are asking passengers whose flights were canceled to rebook, preferably by telephone or online. Beyond special cases, some airlines are prioritizing rebookings for those whose whose original tickets have the earliest dates -- some have set up special rebooking phone numbers to facilitate this. For those who have made alternative plans, many airlines are offering full refunds for unused tickets.

How long will it be before everything's back to normal?
Provided there are no further setbacks caused by volcanic eruptions or other factors, experts estimate the bulk of the backlog will take anywhere between a week and 10 days to clear, but residual problems may persist for weeks. Cathay Pacific, for instance, says it has 16,000 passengers waiting to fly and has drafted in 50 staff to help reallocate their tickets. On Wednesday it said the first flights currently available for new bookings are May 5.

What about passengers stuck in Madrid?
Confusion over advice given to British travelers stranded in mainland Europe resulted in hundreds converging on the Spanish capital Madrid in anticipation of being provided with overland transport to the English Channel ports. The UK Foreign Office had said it was using Madrid as a transport hub for those arriving from outside Europe, but faced complaints when other stranded passengers arrived in the city expecting help. The Foreign Office on Wednesday urged UK citizens to avoid traveling to Madrid. It said it now had 150 coaches in and around Madrid, but it remains unclear whether they will be used as flights resume. "We are still assessing the situation," a spokeswoman said.

What about the situation at Calais and other Channel ports?
For other British air travelers stuck in Europe, the Foreign Office says they should contact airlines but advised there is now no congestion at English Channel ports after ferry operators boosted capacity for foot passengers. Long lines continue to be seen at ferry ticket offices though, and some passengers report that online bookings offer cheaper tickets than those bought at the port. Ferry operators say they have raised prices, saying the charge is justified by increased staffing costs.

Will stranded passengers be entitled to compensation?
Passengers on non EU flights are entitled to a rebooked flight, but the airline is not under obligation to offer meals, accommodation or any other compensation. Anyone flying with an EU-based carried or on a flight originating in the EU is entitled to certain rights, including accommodation and meals -- but not additional cash compensation. Turner warns that passengers who choose not to wait for their airline to rearrange transport and make their own arrangements will forfeit rights to certain assistance. Less clear-cut is the entitlement to compensation through travel insurance. Some insurers insist they are not liable since the volcano eruption can be categorized as an "act of God." Others indicate they may be more sympathetic.

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London's Heathrow receives flights

London, England (News Terupdate) - More than two dozen planes landed at Europe's busiest airport early Wednesday, as restrictions began easing after five days of disruptions caused by last week's volcanic eruption in Iceland.

Twenty-five planes from around the world touched down at London's Heathrow Airport by 7:25 a.m. local time Wednesday (2:25 a.m. ET), but none has yet taken off. The airport said it is coordinating with airlines before the first flight takes off. Most passengers are heeding the advice of the airport to call their airline first before heading to the airport.

The new arrivals followed the landing of the first commercial airliner -- a British Airways flight from Vancouver, British Columbia -- there late Tuesday.

Passengers aboard British Airways Flight 084 broke out in applause as the plane landed shortly before 10 p.m. (5 p.m. ET), just over an hour after Britain's Civil Aviation Authority announced that it would reopen British airspace.

No commercial flight had landed at Heathrow, one of the busiest airports in the world, since Thursday afternoon. All other British airports were also set to reopen at 10 p.m., Transport Secretary Lord Andrew Adonis said after the aviation authority's announcement.

Airspace will reopen in phases, and some "no-fly zones" will remain in place where concentrations of ash are at unsafe levels, the CAA said. The restrictions, however, will be much less than what commercial airliners faced in the past week.

NATS, the country's air traffic control agency, issued a statement late Tuesday saying that most restrictions on British airspace had been lifted "with the exception of an area over the northwest of Scotland which continues to be affected by a dense concentration of volcanic ash."

The flight from Vancouver was one of more than two dozen British Airways flights already in the air bound for London when the CAA announcement was made.

They took off hoping there would be a window of opportunity to land the planes at Heathrow or Gatwick airports, a company representative said.

The 25 planes took off from the West Coast of the United States, Africa, India and other locations in Asia. A 26th plane that had hoped to reach London was sent to Brussels, Belgium, instead, British Airways said.

"We are very pleased that the aviation authorities have opened U.K. airspace to enable us to begin in earnest the task of bringing our stranded customers home," British Airways said in a statement.

But the airline warned it would take "some considerable time" before it can get its full schedule back on track.

The airline said it hopes to operate all long-haul flights out of Heathrow and Gatwick airports by Wednesday.

"This will help to get more aircraft, pilots and cabin crew back who are currently in the United Kingdom out to cities around the world to help customers still awaiting a flight," BA said.

Eruptions from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano are weakening, authorities in Iceland reported, but volcanic ash already in the air continued to blow toward Britain.

The decision to reopen airspace came after the CAA issued new guidance on the massive ash cloud snarling air traffic.

Data analysis and testing of flights through the ash cloud determined that aircraft have a higher tolerance to low-density ash levels than previously thought, allowing for the reopening of airspace, the CAA said.

Elsewhere, half of all Europe's flights were back in the air Tuesday.

Latest air travel developments

About 14,000 flights were expected to operate in European airspace Tuesday -- half of scheduled air traffic, according to Eurocontrol, the intergovernmental body that manages European air travel. Two-thirds of scheduled flights were canceled Monday, and nearly 80 percent did not fly over the weekend.

Flights on Monday were restricted to those above 20,000 feet, Eurocontrol said. Lower airspace is closed or severely restricted across Europe, it said.

Planes were back in the air in France, Germany and Italy. Around 75 percent of scheduled flights were expected from France's two main airports: Charles de Gaulle and Orly, French Minister for Ecology Jean-Louis Borloo told French radio network RTL.

Germany's air authority, DFS, allowed flights to take off and land in German airports at low altitude under visual flight rules to reduce the risk of damage to airline instruments. The country's main carrier, Lufthansa, said it hoped to operate as many as 330 flights, including some long-haul flights, Tuesday.

Italy has reopened its airspace nationwide, the Italian aviation authority ENAC announced.

While airports were open in Spain, the ban on flying in British airspace left thousands of Britons trapped there. A British Navy vessel, HMS Albion, was dispatched to pick up 300 civilians from Santander, Spain, along with hundreds of British military personnel who were returning from Afghanistan, Britain's Ministry of Defense said.

Is your government doing enough to help stranded travelers?

Some countries opened their airspace to travel, while keeping airports closed.

Norway opened part of its airspace near Bergen briefly Tuesday and predicted Gardermoen, just north of Oslo, would be open all day, the country's air traffic control service AVINOR said.

Meanwhile, Finland confirmed that all Finnish airports would remain closed until 9 a.m. (2 a.m. ET) Wednesday.

Would you be afraid to fly through the ash cloud?

Meteorologist Derrick Ryall of the Met Office in London said there is no "defined safe limit" for volcanic ash.

"No one has said what a safe limit for aircraft is, so therefore it's very difficult for these judgments to be made," he said.

We really need to work out what the minimum ash concentration is ... for safe flight. We need to establish what that is, because if we don't, we can expect to see repeats of this sort of disruption," said Simon Day, a volcanologist at University College London.

Since the volcanic eruption worsened last week, sending an ash cloud into the skies, airlines have been losing at least $200 million a day, according to the International Air Transport Association, the trade group representing airlines.

Airports had lost close to 136 million euros ($184 million) as of Sunday, said Olivier Jankovec, director general of Airports Council International, Europe.

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More than 6.8 million passengers had been affected, Jankovec said in a statement, adding that the effect is worse than after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

Thousands of people have been living in airports.

"I have been living out of my carry-on for five days," said Paulo Wu, stranded in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

After two nights sleeping on a cot at the airport, he was able to get into a hotel with an actual bed, he said.

"I have no bags. My bags are somewhere, I think, at the airport. I just have my carry-on," he said.

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Shuttle lands in Florida after weather delay

(News Terupdate) - After spending an extra day in orbit, the seven astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery landed Tuesday morning at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

NASA officials had been closely monitoring weather conditions in the area of the space center, and passed on the first landing opportunity there.

Bad weather prompted mission managers to scrap two landing opportunities at Kennedy on Monday.

Officials had been mulling a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California. But earlier concerns about rain showers within 30 miles of the Kennedy runway were dispelled.

The astronauts were awakened Monday night to begin landing preparations, according to NASA, with mission control playing Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again" as their wake-up call.

On Monday, overcast clouds and a chance of showers in the Cape Canaveral, Florida, area forced the wave-off of an 8:48 a.m. ET opportunity. A scheduled landing at 10:23 a.m. ET also was canceled.

The volcanic ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull glacier, which has caused widespread flight disruptions throughout the world, did not affect the landing plans, NASA said.

The shuttle's re-entry course was not near the ash cloud, the agency said.

The shuttle launched on April 5 and docked to the Space Station two days later.

It marked the first time four women have been in space at one time.

Three women -- mission specialists Stephanie Wilson, Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger and Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki -- are part of the Discovery's crew.

NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson was already at the space station.

The astronauts' trip included three spacewalks and delivery of more than seven tons of equipment and supplies.

There are only three shuttle missions remaining before the space shuttle fleet is retired.

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