Rotherham journalist looks into heart of Icelandic volcano

A Rotherham man headed north to look into the fiery depths of the volcano at the heart of this week's ash cloud crisis.

Journalist Nick Sharpe was one of just a handful of the world’s media to secure a flight to Iceland and took a hair-raising helicopter ride within 500 metres of the volcano.

Nick told his brother, the Advertiser’s Tom Sharpe, about how he came face-to-face with one of the most powerful forces of nature.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Nick, a former Dinnington Comprehensive School pupil.

“We hovered close to huge plumes of dust, dirt and fire as the volcano threw giant lumps of rock hundreds of feet into the air and lightning flashed into the crater.

“It was quite hard to get a sense of the scale from up there, but the lumps of rock that were being thrown out must have been as big as cars and they were just flying thousands of feet through the air and crashing into the ground below.”

Nick joined journalists on a helicopter ride to the Eyjafallajokull crater on Sunday after taking advantage of a fast-closing window for flights out of Glasgow airport last

Friday and his flight into Reykjavik passed within sight of the five-mile high column of ash pouring from the volcano.

Nick said that his short trip had given him an astonishing insight into the volcano and the lives of the people who live in its shadow.

“The destruction caused by the volcano is amazing,” he said. “The rivers are literally running black with soot and dirt.

“Farmers as far as three miles from the crater are worried that the grass their animals rely on might not recover from being under a two-inch layer of ash.”

He added: “The Icelandic people are quite calm about the situation.. Volcanoes erupt every couple of years in Iceland and they just live with it.

“In the 60s a volcano erupted and literally created an island. They called it Surtsey and just got on with life.

“The people I spoke to during my time there felt bad about all the chaos Eyjafallajokull had caused but the general opinion was: ‘It’s our fault, but it’s not our problem’.”

Nick discovered one slightly unnerving final fact before returning to the UK, as he was told by Icelandic locals that Eyjafallajokull’s neighbouring crater, Katla, has always erupted within months of her “sister”—and is 100 times the size.

Other Rotherham travellers hit by the ash cloud chaos this week included:

Flanderwell newlyweds Andrew and Emma Bannon, who were forced to swap Tenerife for Filey after spending their first days as a married couple stuck at the airport.

They even had to sleep in the terminal at Leeds-Bradford airport as their dream first holiday abroad together was wrecked by the flight ban.

Emma (20) and Andrew (23) were offered another flight from Manchester and paid £50 to get there—only to find that that it had been cancelled too.

The couple, who met in Sunnyside and have two children, Caitlin (2) and Harvey (1), tied the knot at the Elton Hotel in Bramley last Wednesday.

They have now decided to stay in Britain as they celebrate their marriage and will travel to the coast on Monday with the children and family.

The hard pressed couple are struggling to find short notice transport for seven for Monday. Anyone who can help should call Emma on 07515 314336.

Six teachers and 16 sixth formers from Brinsworth Comprehensive School boarded a flight from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to Rome on Wednesday on the first leg of their journey back to Rotherham.

The Italian capital was as far as the party could go by air due to the ban on air travel over the UK, leaving them with the prospect of a gruelling bus ride to Calais, starting yesterday, before crossing the Channel.

The party, who should have returned from an exchange visit to Zanzibar last Friday, held a fund-raising drive to pay for the trip—but now face having to pay extra for their coach fare.

Among those on board are 16-year-old Georgia-Mae Marshall, who was due to be a bridesmaid at her godmother’s wedding today.

Lynne Topham was one of the lucky ones—her trans-Atlantic flight beat the dust cloud chaos, meaning that she could celebrate with family and friends in Rotherham this week.

After first fearing that her 50th birthday plans would be left in ruins, a safe half-hour window emerged for the nine-hour journey from Canada, where she emigrated to 28 years ago.

Lynne, formerly of Thrybergh, was delighted to be able to blow out the candles with her close family in the borough on Wednesday.