A Dutch national airline has flown test runs through the ash from Iceland. The jet, crewed by Icelandic, pilots, technicians and stewards also carried the Icelandic vice president of the airline.
Trailing Edam and Gouda cheese, the airline is testing how much contamination is found in the giant, 100Kg slabs of cheese.
Tulips, dropped from the plane, with tacking devices attached, were being collected on the ground by groups of Icelandic Boy Scouts, attending the Makkum and Sneek World Scout Jamboree and being tested for their Radio Amateurs badge. The flowers will be tested for impregnation of ash once the Boy Scouts have all the shards removed from their hands
Results of all the tests will not be available for several days.
Residents of towns and villages along the East Coast of England became alarmed as they saw, then heard the jet flying above them. Older residents, recalled the quiet skies before the storm during the Second World War and thought that the cheeses resembled some kind of secret tracking device.
more news as Sky brings it from the Netherlands
