Flight passengers treated to up close view of Bardarbunga volcano

By MORGAN WHITAKER

If you know anyone who flies regularly, you've probably seen more than a couple pictures taken through an airplane window on Facebook or Instagram, but you probably haven't seen anything quite this cool.

Passengers aboard an Icelandair flight were treated to a spectacular view of the Bardarbunga volcano Wednesday morning when the pilot decided to veer off course, according to a tweet sent out by the airline. The airline says the pilot rerouted the plane to circle the volcano specifically to give the fliers a chance to check it out more closely.

Iceland has dozens of volcanoes, according to Volcano Discovery, but the Bardarbunga is the only one currently erupting. Icelandic authorities initially closed the airspace around the volcano when it began spewing lava last month, after earthquakes rocked the volcano. Officials then raised the country's aviation alert to its highest level, indicating a risk of "significant emission of ash into the atmosphere" according to the Associated Press. Icelandic meteorologists said the seismic activity near volcano had dropped and its lava eruption appeared to be less active, the AP reported Tuesday.

The last time an Icelandic volcano made headlines air travelers got far more misery than glee. Back in 2010 Eyafjallajökull became the word all television reporters struggled to pronounce as the Icelanic volcano known by that complicated name started spewing ash at an astounding rate. The ash clogged up popular flight routes so much that more than 100,000 flights were canceled.

The next year the Grimsvotn volcano had a smaller but similar impact on flights when winds blew ash over parts of northern Europe.

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