Stranded Europeans Seek Alternate Way Home

Frustrated European travelers stranded overseas struggled to find alternate routes home today, desperate for information on flights into the continent's few airports not closed by a dangerous cloud of ash from an Icelandic volcano. Flights into Rome, Athens, and Madrid became the new hot ticket at many international airports—but after three days of travel disruptions, the backlog of passengers meant many faced waiting lists of days, even weeks.

Modern Europe has never seen such a travel disruption, with literally millions of passengers affected and no end in sight. Some carriers, like Australia's Qantas, put passengers up in hotels, but many did not, offering instead only to refund tickets or exchange them for later flights. "It's so strange," said one traveler. "One volcano, and the whole of Europe is down." (More Iceland volcano stories.)