TALLINN — The Iceland volcanic ash cloud that has shut down European air traffic for the fifth day is not sparing the Baltic states, as the air space in Estonia and Latvia remains closed until further notice while Lithuanian airports are operating Southern European routes only.

The volcano explosion underneath Iceland’s Eyjafjallajoekull glacier began on March 20 and started spewing ash into the sky Wednesday. The ash clouds are made up of dust, rock particles and even glass which can choke jet engines. The volcanic dust has stranded people for four days already and created chaos in many countries. The air space of 17 European countries remains closed or partly closed.

Vilnius opened the flights to Italy and Spain, but to Northern Europe the flights remain canceled. Estonian air space was opened for overflights Monday, it remains closed to flights flying below 6.5 km altitude. Estonian Air and airBaltic announced they canceled all of the today’s flights.

Tallinn Airport CEO Rein Loik said in Kuku Radio program early Monday morning that according to the weather prognosis the cloud above Estonia should scatter, and there is a possibility that Estonian air space may be reopened Tuesday.

However, Minister of Economy Juhan Parts said in the Estonian National Radio channel that flights will not be opened until the dust is gone or is declared non-threatening.

“Flight safety is something that does not allow any compromises,” said Parts.

How threatening is it?

In other parts of Europe KLM, Lufthansa, Air Berlin and Air France carried out successful test flights on Sunday. The test results showed that the dust caused no harm to the engines nor the fuselage.

Lufthansa and Air Berlin are critical of the airspace closure, bemoaning revenue losses. Indeed, airlines and airports have received about €150 million per day of the flight shutdown. Meanwhile Lennart Meri faces about a 1 million krooni (€63,900) loss per day.

However, a U.S. official reported Monday that several NATO jet fighter’s engine was damaged while flying over the ash cloud, although further details were not released. Meanwhile two Finnish F-18 jets were also damaged after flying.

The air crisis is affecting more than 6.8 million passengers and 63,000 flights were canceled since Thursday, according to Eurocontrol, which coordinates the European air traffic.

After a meeting with the transport ministers of the 27-member EU bloc, European Commissioner for Transport Siim Kallas said Sunday that more flights may be reinstated Tuesday.

“We cannot just wait until this ash cloud dissipates,” Kallas said.

Jüri Lavrentjev, an automotive engineering professor at Tallinn Technological University told Estonian Public Radio Monday that exactly how volcanic ash influences airplanes is not sufficiently understood by the scientific community, but echoing other European transport officials said it’s better to lose billions of krooni than human lives.

“There’s no point of taking a risk consciously when it is known that something may happen,” said Lavrentjev.

The Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is trying to assist Estonians who stranded abroad. The ministry is trying to intermediate the information on means of transport and possibilities to get back home. Everybody who has available seats on buses or cars should notify the ministry. The information is available at the ministry’s website.

The Foreign Minister Urmas Paet announced Monday that the ministry will send consuls to Turkey and Egypt.

“The consuls will give legislative information to the tourism groups and financial aid if necessary,” Paet told the media.

Many stranded people have also taking advantage of social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter to communicate with family members and co-workers back home.

Air traffic disturbed for years?

Meanwhile Europe’s response to the ash cloud is likely to be examined thoroughly as the unprecedented event’s toll on the economy becomes more apparent.

“We are far enough into this crisis to express our dissatisfaction on how governments have managed it-with no risk assessment, no consultation, no coordination, and no leadership. This crisis is costing airlines at least $200 million a day in lost revenues and the European economy is suffering billions of dollars in lost business. In the face of such dire economic consequences, it is incredible that Europe’s transport ministers have taken five days to organize a teleconference,” Giovanni Bisignani, the International Air Transport Association CEO said. “We have seen volcanic activity in many parts of the world but rarely has it resulted in airspace closures — and never at this scale.”

Europe may be put to the test again, as some scientists say the Eyjafjallajökull volcano explosion will not be the last one and more Icelandic eruptions may occur in the near future. Given the island’s geographic location, the ash may be blown throughout the continent again anytime.

“Volcanic activity on Iceland appears to follow a periodicity of around 50 to 80 years. The increase in activity over the past 10 years suggests we might be entering a more active phase with more eruptions,” Thorvaldur Thordarson, an expert on Icelandic volcanoes at the University of Edinburgh told New Scientist magazine.

— Baltic Reports editor Nathan Greenhalgh contributed to this article.

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