On July 2nd 1937, Amelia Earhart aged 39, accompanied by Navigator Fred Noonam, got missing while flying from Papua New Guinean to land in California. Her last message was that she could not locate the Howland Island where she was suppose to land for refuelling.Her remains and that of her fellow trveller was never located. The debris of the plane was also never found.

FLIGHTS CANCELLED

And hundreds of flights from Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Manchester, Luton and Birmingham have been cancelled.

British Airways has cancelled all domestic flights to all domestic airports.

An internal BA memo obtained by Sky News advises pilots: "The safety of our customers, crew and aircraft is of paramount importance and will not be compromised."

Officials said more airports could close completely as the ash drifts over the UK.

Airports are urging travellers to contact their airlines to check whether their journeys are affected.

Latest travel information - read how each of the airports is affected here.

More than 150 flights have been cancelled at Heathrow and 138 at Gatwick, including the majority of easyJet and Monarch departures.

Eighty flights have been cancelled at Birmingham.

A spokesman from National Air Traffic Services (NATS) said: "The Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre has issued a forecast that the ash cloud from the volcanic eruption in Iceland will track over Europe tonight.

"NATS is working with Eurocontrol and our colleagues in Europe's other air navigation service providers to take the appropriate action to ensure safety in accordance with international aviation policy."

NATS has the authority to close airpsace around airports - which it has so far done in Scotland - and will consider other airports as the day goes on.

Manchester Airport said flights would be cancelled and delayed between 7am and 1pm.

Some easyJet flights due to depart from Stansted Airport have also been cancelled.

Sky's Enda Brady, reporting from Heathrow, said things were only expected to get worse throughout the day.

"I've been told that there won't be any good news coming out of the airport today."

Brady said that arrivals from the USA were particularly badly affected due to the flight path.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor Vince Cable cancelled campaign visits to Dunfermline and Edinburgh due to the Scottish airport closures.

Passengers told Sky about massive disruptions to their plans.

One said: "I'm due to get married in Essex tomorrow and my family were flying in from Belfast. That's not going to happen now."

Another said he had been sent home from Manchester airport and told to ring Monarch for more information but it was impossible to get through.

The volcanic eruption was the second in Iceland in less than a month.

The heat from it is so fierce it melted part of the Eyjafjallajokull glacier, sparking huge floods.

Weather experts also said the ash could take a number of days to disperse.

Dr Matthew Roberts, from the Iceland Meteorological Office, told Sky News he believed that there were unlikely to be any more explosions.

He said that the fine ash particles being blown across Europe should only "pose minimal health hazards" to people in the UK.

The volcanic ash jams machinery on planes and there have been many instances of damage to jet aircraft in the past.

After the Galunggung volcanic event in 1982, a British Airways Boeing 747 flew through an ash cloud that fouled all 4 engines, stopping them.

The plane descended from 36,000 feet (11,000m) to 12,000 feet (3,700m) before the crew could manage to restart the engines.

Sky weather presenter Lucy Verasamy said: "The ash cloud from Iceland represents a risk to aircraft since it can damage engines.

"But in this instance it won't affect the weather - although massive and prolonged eruptions can cause a cooling of the climate."

POLISH PRESIDENT IN PLANE CRASH

Polish President Lech Kaczynski and scores of other people were killed Saturday when the president's plane crashed on landing in the western Russian city of Smolensk, officials said. Skip related content
Related photos / videos Officials in Warsaw confirmed that President Kaczynski was aboard the plane Enlarge photo Officials in Warsaw confirmed that President Kaczynski was aboard the plane Enlarge photo VIDEO: Putin and Tusk remember Poland's Katyn massacre. Enlarge photo The Smolensk regional governor, Sergei Antufiev, said the plane clipped treetops as it approached to land at an airport outside Smolensk and crashed, breaking into several pieces.

Russian television broadcast live footage showing the plane's wreckage scattered in a forest with parts of it still on fire.

Russian news agencies reported there were at least 80 people aboard the plane -- some reports said there were as many as 132 people on board -- and Antufiev said no one had survived.

"It clipped the tops of the trees, crashed down and broke into pieces," the governor of the Smolensk region, Sergei Antufiev, told Russia-24 television news network by telephone from Smolensk.

"There were no survivors."

The television pictures showed the plane broken into many pieces, including engines and a huge chunk of the plane's vertical stabilizer caked in mud, strewn over a large area in forest that was blanketed with fog.

Firefighters were dousing water on portions of the plane that were still ablaze while groups of security personnel in camouflage uniforms and clusters of investigators in civilian clothes inspected the wreckage.

The Russian foreign ministry told Interfax news agency that the plane had crashed in heavy fog.

Officials in Warsaw confirmed that Kaczynski was aboard the plane that crashed and Russian television broadcast video shot earlier Saturday of the president and his wife boarding the plane in Warsaw.

Polish foreign ministry spokesman Piotr Pszkowski said that the army chief of staff and Deputy Foreign Minsiter Andrzej Kremer were also on board the plane.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev immediately appointed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the head of a commission to investigate the crash and sent Russia's emergency situations minister, Sergei Shoigu, to the site.

The aircraft crashed a few hundred metres short of the runway at the Severny airport outside Smolensk, ITAR-TASS news agency reported, quoting rescuers at the site.

The flight data recorders of the plane had not yet been located but experts were on the scene and the search for them was under way, ITAR-TASS said.

Kaczynski, the identical twin brother of former prime minister Jaroslaw, was on his way to attend commemorative ceremonies at the forest of Katyn in western Russia where 22,000 Poles were killed by Soviet troops 70 years ago.

The crash of his plane occurred three days after Putin and his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, together attended a memorial for the victims of the massacre at Katyn.

The Putin-Tusk meeting there was seen as a huge symbolic advance in Russia's often thorny relations with Poland.

TOURISM ROCKET FIRST FLIGHT

Virgin Galactic's fledgling space tourism rocket was taken aloft over the California desert on an inaugural test flight attached to the wing of its mothership, the company said. Skip related content
The captive-carry test marked the start of a test programme for SpaceShipTwo that will progress to free flights as a glider and then under rocket power, Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic said in a statement.
Throughout the two-hour, 54-minute test, the spaceship remained slung beneath the middle of the wing of its unique twin-fuselage carrier aircraft, the WhiteKnightTwo.
The pair achieved an altitude of 45,000 feet before returning to the Mojave Air and Space Port, which is 70 miles north of Los Angeles, the company said.
The rocket and mothership are the second-generation of the Burt Rutan-designed system that sent the first privately developed, manned rocket into space in June 2004. SpaceShipOne went on that year to make two more suborbital flights, winning the 10 million US dollar Ansari X Prize.
Sir Richard, the billionaire founder of Virgin Group Ltd, is in a deal with the Rutan-founded Scaled Composites LLC of Mojave, California, to develop passenger-carrying spacecraft and launchers.
The new SpaceShipTwo has been dubbed Virgin Spaceship Enterprise and the four-engine carrier jet is called Virgin Mothership Eve, after Sir Richard's mother.
"Seeing the finished spaceship in December was a major day for us but watching VSS Enterprise fly for the first time really brings home what beautiful, groundbreaking vehicles Burt and his team have developed for us," Sir Richard said.
Virgin Galactic said the flight test programme will run until the end of 2011 before commercial operations begin. SpaceShipTwo will be carried to an altitude of about 50,000 feet and then released by the mothership.
Powered by a single rocket motor, the spaceship will be flown by a crew of two and carry six passengers on a Mach 3 thrill ride through the edge of the atmosphere for a brief zero-gravity experience and views of the Earth far below before gliding to a landing. More than 300 people have made deposits on the 200,000 US dollar (£132,000) tickets.

HEATHROW CRASH

Heathrow Crash: Fault 'Not Covered By Rules'


© Sky News 2010
Buzz Up! Print StorySafety requirements did not cover the ice problem which caused a plane to crash-land at Heathrow two years ago, according to an official report into the accident. Skip related content
Related photos / videos
Heathrow Crash: 'Ice Not Covered By Rules'
Play video Heathrow Crash: 'Ice Not Covered By Rules' Play video Unforeseen Ice Problem Caused Heathrow Crash Enlarge photo More photos: Heathrow
The crash of the British Airways 777 on January 17, 2008 came after the plane lost power due to a restricted fuel flow to both engines, a final report from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said.

The AAIB concluded that it was probable that the engine fuel flow restriction was caused by a build-up of ice within the fuel system.

The AAIB said: "Certification requirements, with which the aircraft and engine fuel system had to comply, did not take account of this phenomenon as the risk was unrecognised at that time."

The report added that research in the 1950s had identified the problem of ice formation in fuel systems from dissolved or trapped water, but did not identify the scenario of accumulated ice release and subsequent restriction to fuel flow.

Having lost power the BA plane, carrying 136 passengers from Beijing, came down within the airfield boundary at Heathrow but 330 metres short of the runway.

The jet slid 372 metres on its undercarriage before coming to rest.

The left main landing gear (MLG) collapsed and the right MLG separated from the plane. All the passengers were safely evacuated, with one passenger breaking a leg.

All told, 34 passengers and 12 cabin crew suffered minor injuries, mainly to the back and neck.

The report said that the cabin crew, led by Captain Peter Burkill, had become aware of a possible engine thrust problem just 43 seconds from touchdown.

Losing speed, the crew tried to increase engine thrust but there was no response from the engines. With a touchdown short of the runway inevitable, a Mayday call was put out three seconds before touchdown.

The AAIB made a total of 18 safety recommendations including some which address plane "crashworthiness", the ability of an aircraft to withstand an accident.

A British Airways spokesman said: "We welcome this final report. The crew of BA38 did a fantastic job in extremely difficult circumstances."

BA added that although there were no specific safety recommendations for the airline, it had worked with the relevant authorities and manufacturers "to ensure that the highest safety levels are maintained".

MIGRATING TO DEATH

Japanese authorities have found the body of a man in the landing gear of an airliner that arrived in Tokyo from New York. Skip related content
Related photos / videos
Man's Body Found In Landing Gear Of US Flight
Enlarge photo .The man, who was of dark complexion and dressed only in blue jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, was carrying no passport or personal belongings.

A mechanic found the body in the landing gear bay of the Delta Airlines Boeing 777, after Flight 59 landed at Tokyo's Narita International Airport, a Chiba prefecture police spokesman said.

After the passengers disembarked, the aircraft was towed to a freight area. The maintenance worker found the man inside the door of the landing gear storage compartment.

Airport police said there were no external injuries on the man's body, but there were traces of frostbite believed to have occurred while the plane was airborne.

"Doctors say he probably froze to death and that he suffered a shortage of oxygen at an altitude of more than 30,000 feet," said Narita Airport police spokesman Yoshimi Ichihara.

"We found no passport, no bag and no personal belongings. If he carried any luggage, it must have all dropped out when the airplane opened the landing gear bay above the ocean before it landed."

There is enough space for a person to hide in the main landing gear housing compartment, but the area is not pressurised with the cabin of the aircraft.

Consequently there have been several cases in which stowaways have hidden in the housing compartment, but died due to a shortage of oxygen and the freezing temperatures.

Japanese authorities are seeking help from US police to identify the man.

TOYOTA RECALLS

The Toyota recall is potentially going to cost the company heavily
Toyota is in the process of recalling millions of cars owing to fears of a sticking accelerator pedal.

Cars in the US, Europe and China are all involved in the recall but different models are affected.

The carmaker has apologised for the problems but stresses that only a small proportion of its vehicles are affected. It says only 26 cases have been reported in Europe.

Both diesel and petrol cars are affected.

What is the issue that has raised concerns?

There is a problem with the accelerator pedal that in some cases has become stuck. This is the result of the pedal becoming worn, the company says.

Separately in the US, there have been fears that accelerator pedals have been stuck in the floor mat.

Millions of vehicles have been recalled in the US, 1.8 million cars across Europe are involved in the recall including 180,865 vehicles in the UK, and others are being brought in in China.

Specifically which vehicles are being recalled?

For the floormat issue in the US, Toyota, Lexus and Pontiac vehicles affected are: 2007-2010 Camry, 2005-2010 Avalon, 2004-2009 Prius, 2005-2010 Tacoma, 2007-2010 Tundra, 2007-2010 ES 350, 2006-2010 IS 250 and IS350, 2008-2010 Highlander, 2009-2010 Corolla, 2009-2010 Venza, 2009-2010 Matrix, and the 2009-2010 Pontiac Vibe.

Those recalled for the sticking pedal in the US are 2007-2008 Tundra, 2008-2010 Sequoia, 2005-2010 Avalon, 2007-2010 Camry, 2009-2010 Corolla, 2009-2010 Matrix, 2009-2010 RAV4, 2010 Highlander, and the 2009-2010 Vibe.

In the UK, the affected models are February 2005 - August 2009 AYGO, November 2008 - November 2009 iQ, November 2005 - September 2009 Yaris, October 2006 - 5 January 2010 Auris, October 2006 - December 2009 Corolla, February 2009 - 5 Jan 2010 Verso, November 2008 - December 2009 Avensis.

Are any other brands involved?

Toyota has admitted a software problem in the new Prius's brakes, but says it has now been fixed, and did not affect vehicles in the UK. So far it has not recalled any Prius cars.

Drivers of Peugeots and Citroens have contacted the BBC News website raising concerns. The Peugeot 107, Citroen C1 and the Toyota Aygo are essentially the same car with different styling and fittings and made at a Czech plant.

As a result, Peugeot Citroen, Europe's second-biggest carmaker, will be recalling "fewer than 100,000" cars made with Toyota in Europe.

Meanwhile, in an unrelated move, rival carmaker Honda has announced the recall of 646,000 cars globally to fix a switch defect that could cause a fire.

What do I do if I get a "sticky accelerator" when driving?

Toyota says drivers will not suddenly find that they have a sticking accelerator. At first, it is likely to be heavier to press or shudder and at that point they should contact the company.

However, if the accelerator does stick when driving, the motorist should press firmly on the brake - instead of pumping it, put the car into neutral, and pull over when safe.

What do I do next?

If you are in the US, you should contact your dealer.

For more information, consumers can contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Hotline at 888-327-4236 or the Toyota Experience Center at 1-800-331-4331 or the Lexus Customer Assistance Center at 1-800-255-3987.

Information from Toyota is also posted at the Toyota website or the Lexus website .

In the UK, cars will start being repaired from 10 February. The repairs will be carried out by qualified Toyota technicians, at Toyota-approved service centres and will take 30 minutes.

In the meantime there is a hotline - 0800 1388 744 - and a dedicated website .

The company is also working with the DVLA and will write to car owners whose vehicles could be affected. This will also include owners who have bought the cars second-hand.

A website that would allow owners to check their vehicles registration number is also being developed.