A Russian volcano eruption could cancel or delay your Sea-Tac flight. Here’s what to know

Flights from Sea-Tac International Airport to Anchorage, Alaska, are being canceled due to a volcanic eruption thousands of miles away from Washington state.

Alaska Airlines announced on Thursday that it’s canceling at least 15 flights and delaying 26 more flights due to a cloud of volcanic ash traveling eastbound from Russia, according to FlightAware.

“An ash cloud from a volcanic eruption in Russia is impacting flights in the state of Alaska,” the airline stated in a tweet Thursday morning. “As a safety precaution, @AlaskaAir has canceled some flights to and from Alaska and within the state.”

The Shiveluch volcano, located in Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on the nation’s far east side, began erupting Tuesday and spewing vast clouds of dust into the sky. The cloud has been traveling eastward toward Alaska. The Anchorage Daily News reported Wednesday night that the cloud, originating 1,800 miles west of Alaska, isn’t expected to reach The Last Frontier.

Air planes and volcanic ash

Air flights are canceled every year due to volcanic ash, which is essentially super-heated rock, mineral and glass particles ejected from active volcanoes, according to National Geographic. The particles have low density and are only a few millimeters in diameter, which allows the material to travel far distances by wind.

In the past, volcanic ash movement has caused numerous commercial flights to experience technical failures. One instance dates back to 1989, when a Boeing 747 dropped 25,000 feet in the air for 12 minutes straight due to volcanic cloud interference. No injuries were reported based on information at the time provided by the Anchorage Daily News.

The heated dust can impact an aircraft in multiple ways, according to aircraft website Simple Flying. Volcanic particles have the potential to:

• Destroy the outer surface of an aircraft’s fuselage

• Obscure or shatter an aircraft’s windshield

• Enter and heat, stick to and destroy a plane’s engine, leaving the rest of the aircraft without power

Simple Flying also notes that engine failure is the most severe damage volcanic ash can cause to an aircraft. One of the most famous cases of this happening is the 1982 incident involving British Airways Flight 9. Forty-one years ago, a Boeing 747 aircraft accidentally traveled into a torrent of volcanic ash originating from Mount Galunggung in Indonesia. Eventually, power was restored during the flight, and it managed to land safely with no reported injuries.