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Spewing ash from Chile’s Puyehue volcano has grounded Avril Lavigne in Argentina, and may prevent her arrival for Wednesday’s scheduled concert in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The singer, along with boyfriend Brody Jenner, posted updates on their Twitter accounts during what turned out to be a nine hour airport stay. After their flight was canceled for the day, the couple left the airport and Lavigne ended her updates by tweeting “They have covered all the planes with tarps to keep volcanic ash out of engines. This is nuts!”
Wednesday morning, local airlines reported flights out of Buenos Aires’ Aeroparque Jorge Newbery airport would continue to be cancelled until at least 12 pm (noon), however the Ezeiza international airport was running operations as normal.
There have been no updates from either Lavigne or Jenner as to whether they will have a flight in time to make the first of two Brazil concerts scheduled today and tomorrow, although her drummer Rodney Howard tweeted early this morning “We found a way! Flying to Sao Paulo now right now…” and posted an image link intended perhaps to lighten the mood of anxious Brazilian ticket holders, but likely won’t get Lavigne or her band to Brazil any faster.
Tuesday’s cloudy conditions in the region didn’t allow for NASA satellites to reveal the exact path of the volcano’s ash plume – which, depending on prevailing winds, can blow to the east or west – but a clearer image from June 14 shows an example of when the plume blew in a north-east direction that appears would continue directly over Buenos Aires (off map – see below).
At around noon Wednesday, it was reported runways at Aeroparque had been cleared of volcanic ash. The Buenos Aires Herald cited sources from Aerolíneas Argentinas 2000 who stated each airline should make their decision over how flights are to be reprogrammed, and Lan Argentina (airline) informed its customers that from 2.15 pm the flight schedules would resume gradually, to and from Aeroparque.