School classes closed in volcano chaos

Teachers and pupils missing, thousands still stranded

HUNDREDS of pupils and teachers in school across Oldham were left stranded today as the ash cloud held its grip over Europe.

North Chadderton School was forced to close to Year 7 and 8 pupils today due to a “significant” numbers of teachers affected by the flights ban.

Supply staff were called in at Crompton House due to staff being stranded abroad.

And a party of 41 pupils aged 12 to 15 and four staff from Oldham Hulme Girls’ Grammar School are stranded in America.

The group was due to return to Gatwick on Thursday, the first day of the flight clampdown, following a week’s cultural trip in Los Angeles and San Francisco but are now waiting for the first available flight home.

Meanwhile, the nightmare continued for Easter holidaymakers who were stranded across the globe.

Manchester Airport was still closed to all flights today with a spokesman saying the chaos looks set to last until Wednesday.

He said: “On an average Monday, we normally have 45,000 passengers travelling to and from Manchester.

“I’ve walked to every terminal this morning and counted just 11 passengers. It’s eerie.”

Families have been left stranded abroad as the skies over Europe remained a no-fly zone.

Three branches of an Oldham family are trapped on the other side of Atlantic. A couple from Shaw and their teenage son and daughter aged 15 and 13, had enjoyed a Caribbean cruise over Easter and were due to fly home on Saturday from America.

The grandparents had also been on a different Caribbean cruise and were due to fly home from Newark, America, today into Manchester. And their other son, his wife and 11-year-old grandson were also due to fly into Manchester yesterday from Lanzarote.

The daughter and her husband, who did not want the family identified, said: “We have a provisional booking for a flight on Wednesday.

“We travelled overland from Miami to Philadelphia hoping to get a flight there, and now we are hoping to go from Philadelphia to Boston, then fly to Dublin, and from Dublin to Holyhead by ferry, and hopefully back from Wales by taxi.

“It really is trains and boats and planes.”

Chronicle IT director Jim Taylor is anxiously waiting for news of his daughter, Jillian Owen (33), originally from Royton, who took a London school party to St Petersburg over Easter.

Their Russian visas have run out and they have had to travel by train to Helsinki in Finland and wait for any flight to a European airport.

Jillian is also four months pregnant and Jim said: “They hope to get the first BA flight out on Tuesday.

“Fortunately Jillian is with her husband and she speaks fluent Russian.”

Schoolgirl Emma Kelly (15) from Shaw, swapped school for the pool today after her Saturday night flight from Lazarote was cancelled.

Emma, who is on holiday with family friends also from Shaw, said: “No-one is coming in — there were flights from Spain but they stopped on Saturday.

“Everyone is helping everyone else, there is a great community spirit.”

Alan Tongue, from Grotton, said it was thanks to the hard work of travel company Ski Miquel, based in Uppermill, that he managed to get back from a ski holiday in France.

After his Saturday flight was cancelled, the company arranged for coaches and ferries to take him and other passengers from ski resort Serre Chevalier back to Manchester.

Bryan Beckingham, branch secretary of Oldham National Union of Teachers (NUT), said he knew of two members that were stranded, one stuck on honeymoon in Malaysia and another in Canada, but feared the number could be higher.

Even local cricket was been hit by the effects of the volcano.

Yesterday’s opening matches in the Central Lancashire League season saw several clubs forced to manage without players stranded in their own countries, including Oldham’s overseas amateur, South African Keelan Gossayn.

Local travel agents have been inundated with calls from customers worried about flights this week.

Karen Manners, at Pole travel in Failsworth, said: “Tour operators are sending emails and we are checking the news regularly for the best advice.

“Even the local taxi office which is due to pick people up from the airport is checking with us.

“Luckily a lot of people have booked with travel agents and are better protected.”

Manchester Airport’s major schedule and charter flight operator, Monarch cancelled all flights to and from Lanzarote, Almeria, Barcelona, Faro, Larnaca, Malaga, Tenerife, and Alicante, yesterday and suspended flights to Goa and Sharm el Sheikh later this week.

However, they arranged a 174 seater Airbus A320 rescue flight to operate between Palma and Madrid at 8am today to take the longest stranded passengers to the Spanish capital where coaches will transfer them back to Manchester via Calais.

Jet 2 and Thomson cancelled all flights today and Thomson advised against any travel to the airport.