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LAN suspends flights to southern Chile due to volcano eruption(EFE Ingles Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Santiago, Jul 20 (EFE).- The airline LAN Chile on Sunday suspended its flights to and from the southern city of Puerto Montt because of the cloud of ash being expelled by the Chaiten volcano, which has been erupting since May 2. The firm said in a communique that the ash cloud makes the operation of aircraft dangerous at the El Tepual airport, 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) south of Santiago and about 220 kilometers (136 miles) from the volcano, and so it decided to suspend all its flights in the region until conditions improve. "LAN took this decision in accord with its high safety standards and it is monitoring the situation on an ongoing basis (and) will be reporting periodically on the status of operations" there, said airline in the communique. The eruption of Chaiten forced the evacuation of thousands of residents from Palena province, including the more than 4,000 inhabitants of the same-named town, which later was largely washed away by overflowing rivers and remains uninhabitable. In recent weeks, the volcano's eruption has diminished, and authorities have organized several trips for local residents to return to recover some of their belongings from the town, the future of which remains uncertain although authorities do not rule out that it might be rebuilt in another spot. Since the beginning of July, the Llaima volcano has also been erupting in the La Araucania region, some 680 kilometers (422 miles) south of Santiago, but - in contrast to Chaiten - its activity has been characterized mainly by the release of lava rather than ash. The situation, in any case, is being watched closely by authorities in the area, and some small villages located around the volcano have been evacuated as a precautionary measure. The Chilean government announced in recent days that it would invest $30 million to establish a permanent monitoring system for 43 of the country's 122 active volcanoes. EFE ns/bp Copyright ? 2008 EFE News Services (U.S.) Inc. |