Christian groups caught up in flight ban

Thousands of people hoping that flights in and out of the UK could recommence soon were left stranded again today when it was decided that the flights ban would 1093090waiting

stay in place until at least 1am on Tuesday.

On day five of the lock down on all flights in the UK and most of Northern Europe, air traffic control company Nats said conditions around the movement of the volcanic ash cloud over the UK “remained dynamic”.

In a bid to help those stranded Gordon Brown announced that two Royal Navy warships have been deployed to the English Channel to rescue stranded Britons.

HMS Ark Royal and HMS Ocean are ready to start a relief mission and the UK's Transport Secretary Lord Adonis says governments are working hard to find a solution.

But, on the ground it is a sorry state of affairs for people with plans dashed and uncertainty abounding.

One of our listeners Rosalind is worried about members of her family stranded in different parts of the world. Her 13 year-old son is stuck at a football tournament in Spain:

“He said now he is stuck and does not have any money, although they are in a hotel in Madrid. I am very much concerned because he is not the only one. I‘ve got my niece and my brother in Sierra Leone. We went to my fathers anniversary and they are stuck there.”

Ex-Naval officer and Christian Mike Critchley is trying to get home from Italy by train. He's been part of the NEXT WAVE mission trip run by the youth charity Marine Reach.

“We don’t have any seats. We have not been able to buy a tickets because the machines do not take UK credit cards. The big unknown is what’s going to happen when we get to Rome.”

Meanwhile, charity World Vision has had to cancel a major conference on child health in Dublin. Organiser Kate Eardley says they just can't get delegates to the venue:

“We were expecting between 40-50 invited guest including Irish MPs, four Ambassadors from African countries and also we were expecting a visit from the minister of state from Ireland for overseas aid. It’s a real blow for us.”

Pressure is now mounting on the Government to end the ban which has left more than 150,000 Britons stranded abroad and an estimated cost of the airport shutdowns at around £130 million a day.

The Association of European Airways yesterday called for an “immediate reassessment” of the restrictions as British Airways yesterday claimed that a two-hour test flight encountered no problems while flying from Heathrow to Cardiff.

Transport ministers from across the continent will hold a video conference later.