AIRLINE passengers in the East Midlands face further traffic chaos after it was announced most flights out of the UK will be grounded until 7pm tonight at the earliest.

The problems started on Thursday when a plume of volcanic ash drifted across the UK.

It led to 200 flights out of East Midlands Airport being cancelled because it was feared the cloud could pepper planes with tiny shards of glass, causing major malfunctions such as engine failures.

Air traffic control company Nats said no non-emergency flights will be allowed in or out of the UK before 7pm.

Airports across the country, which had been able to handle some early-morning arrivals and departures before the flight ban, effectively shut down from noon on Thursday.

The ash, from the Icelandic mountain Eyjaffjalljokull, also caused airport and aircraft movement shutdowns in other parts of Europe, including France, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Holland.

The plume disrupted the travel plans of about 5,000 people.

Planes were grounded over fears the cloud drifting across the UK could pepper them with tiny shards of glass, causing major malfunctions such as engine failures.

Restrictions were expected to remain in place at all English airports until at least 1pm today, though a limited number of flights might operate earlier than that in Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland.

Among holidaymakers left stranded was Clare Oakland, from Alfreton, who said: "I was thinking about all the things that could possibly have gone wrong before the holiday. A volcano erupting in Iceland and sending a cloud of ash over the country was not something that crossed my mind."

Rams boss Nigel Clough was stuck in Amsterdam, where he had been watching a player. He eventually got home via rail.

He said: "We felt like John Candy and Steve Martin in the film Planes, Trains and Automobiles!"

As a national ban on all flights was imposed, even Derbyshire's air ambulance was grounded.

At the Castle Donington airport, 115 passenger flights and 84 freight flights were cancelled throughout the day.

Clare Oakland's flight to Amsterdam was cancelled three times, forcing her and two friends to book emergency seats for later today.

Clare, 23, and fellow holidaymakers Lucy Foley, from Derby, and Liz Sharp, from Clifton, Notts, had been due to depart on a bmibaby flight to Amsterdam at 6.45am yesterday.

After that was cancelled, they booked seats on a plane which was due to fly at 3.30pm instead and, after that was cancelled, booked seats on a flight this morning.

When they heard that plane would also be grounded by the extended ban on flights, the trio were forced to consider getting to Amsterdam by other modes of travel.

Clare said: "We didn't check our flight in the morning before we arrived because it just didn't occur to us that it might have been cancelled.

"As soon as we walked in and saw that it had been, we were gutted, but it was unbelievable when we found out why."

Kayleigh Cooper, 24, from Derby, was due to fly to Paris this morning with her boyfriend Sean Langford, also 24, from Nottingham.

Miss Cooper said: "We were told there had been a volcanic eruption in Iceland which I thought it was an April Fool's joke. We don't know anything else. We've been booked on a later flight but we've just been told to take each flight as it comes.''

The pair were flying out to France to begin a six-month placement working at a campsite in the Champagne region.

Mr Langford said: "I suppose we've just got to wait and we will get there in the end.''

As flight information boards in the airport's departure hall flooded with the word "cancelled", hundreds of passengers stood waiting to find out if and when they would be able to head out to their destinations.

Extra staff were drafted in at the airport to help give advice to stranded passengers and a spokeswoman said live updates would be available on its website, www.eastmidlandsairport. com.

She said passengers wanting to book new seats or arrange refunds for unused tickets should contact the airline they were flying with. Passengers could reclaim the cost of hotel bills from travel insurance.

She added: "The restrictions have caused disruptions to all flights to and from East Midlands Airport – however, the airport remains open. We apologise to passengers travelling today for the inconvenience."

Mr Clough, along with coach Gary Crosby, had been watching transfer target Danny Buijs in Holland when their flight out of Amsterdam was cancelled.

He said: "We knew there were problems when we got to Amsterdam Airport and it was obvious there was an issue getting back to England.

"We explored every possibility of flying to airports up and down the country, but it became obvious that was not going to work.

"We decided to jump on a train rather than wait. We left Amsterdam early, went via Brussels and Lille and eventually home on the Eurostar to St Pancras, in London. We then got another train to Derby."

A spokeswoman for courier DHL, which operates out of East Midlands Airport, said: "The airspace closures had an impact on our operations.

"We have contingency plans to make sure stock is still able to move across the UK."

Helicopters were not grounded because they do not fly as high as planes, meaning they would not be at as much risk of damage by the cloud.

But staff at Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance decided to focus efforts on providing emergency services on the roads instead.

A spokesman said: "The air ambulance was taken off at around midday yesterday.

"We utilised our fast-response vehicle, enabling doctors and paramedics to provide emergency care quickly."

As the ash cloud passes over the UK and airports start to operate again, airlines will be counting the cost of more than 24 hours of cancellations.

Although no airlines at East Midlands Airport could say yesterday what that cost would be, financial expert John Strickland said the financial impact was "unavoidable".

He said: "Some passengers could travel on other days. With short flights, people might go on the train to London and use the Eurostar.

"The extent of the impact depends on how long restrictions last, but lost business will be unavoidable."

Geology expert Dr Dorothy Satterfield said the scale of the volcanic cloud was very rare – despite similar eruptions being common.

The cloud was formed when a volcano in Iceland blasted through a thick glacier.

Tiny shards of glass were dispersed in the eruption and were thrown so high that they could drift in one massive cloud towards Europe.

Dr Satterfield, senior lecturer in geology at the University of Derby, said glass fragments were often dispersed in eruptions but rarely thrown as high or far as yesterday's cloud.

She said: "If you have a small eruption or it is not very energetic, the glass fragments will disperse in the region and it is not a big deal.

"The particles are so tiny that even with a microscope you would have a hard time seeing them. By the time anything does reach the ground, it is going to be very thin."

Experts said it was unlikely the ash cloud would affect long-term weather patterns.