Volcanic Ash Plume Does Not Pollute, Will Exit Romanian Airspace on Wednesday

Tests conducted on data gathered by the National Network for Monitoring Air Quality revealed no excess pollution, said Romanian Environment Ministry state secretary Ioan Mircea Cotosman.

Other tests were conducted on water samples from rainfalls of the past hours. While preliminary results revealed no acid rain, further details are expected once the lab tests have been finalized, the State Secretary said.

He said that the rainfall was solely beneficial, as it nourished crops and cleansed cities of dust.

The state secretary did not provide further details on a second Europe-bound ash plume and cited the lack of official information from London's Volcanic Ash Advisory Center, an institute which forecasts the trajectories of airborne volcanic ash.

"Our forecasts cannot extend for time periods longer than two days. From what we now know, Romania will experience no problems during the following two days; the current ash plume will leave Romanian airspace and the second plume will not reach Romania earlier than in two days' time. That's all the official information we have", Cotosman said.

The April 15 eruption of Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull caused severe air traffic disturbances.

Romanian airspace was reopened on Monday, with several airlines still canceling flights to unsafe destinations on Tuesday.

A second, smaller ash plume is expected to reach European airspace during the following week, but its trajectory remains unknown as of yet.

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