'Ladies and gentlemen, on your left you will see an erupting volcano': The stunning sight Caribbean holidaymakers saw from plane

Daily Mail, by Daily Mail Reporter, 11:06 AM on 25th March 2010

As in-flight entertainment goes, this certainly beats watching the latest Hollywood flop on a ten-inch screen.

Passengers flying off on a Caribbean holiday were stunned when they spotted a massive volcanic eruption, which sent a huge plume of ash skyward.

The explosion of the Soufriere Hills volcano, on the island of Montserrat, sent ash bellowing up to 40,000ft.

The spectacle was spotted by the pilot of a plane travelling to the island of St Lucia. He immediately alerted his passengers who dashed to the side of the 737 jet to catch a glimpse.

Front-row seat: A photo taken by a passenger from the window of her holiday jet shows the Soufriere Hills volcano erupting on the island of Montserrat in the Caribbean

The mushroom-shaped cloud went so high that it even caused some flights to nearby islands to be delayed because of the danger of ash getting into the engines.

Hairdresser Mary Jo Penkala, who was flying with her partner Barry Steinfeld, grabbed her camera as soon as she saw the ash cloud.

Ms Penkala, 49, said: 'We were up in the air and I noticed an unusual cloud formation above the regular lower clouds you see when you are flying at a high altitude.

'The formation of the clouds looked very odd and I could see it was coming from an island.

Watch out: The eruption sent ash up to 40,000ft into the sky

'I could see bursts of cloud that seemed to be forming layers so I grabbed a camera and started taking pictures.

'I had no idea what it was until the pilot told us all to look out of the window on the left of the plane because there was a volcano going off on the island of Montserrat.

'He said he had been watching for a long time since it had started.'

Holiday snaps: Mary Jo Penkala on her holiday after the memorable flight

Ms Penkala, from Calgary, Canada, said the 737 plane's passengers, who were flying from Toronto, rushed to the side of the aircraft to grab a view of the spectacular sight.

She said because she was sitting on the left, passengers from the other side passed their cameras to her so she could grab some snaps.

She added: 'When we arrived at our resort in St Lucia everyone was talking about the volcano.

'We heard that some flights to the island had been delayed because the volcanic ash in the air was dangerous for the engines of the plane.

'Everyone who has seen the picture has been amazed. We were so lucky to see the volcano in all its glory.

'It was certainly an interesting start to our vacation.'

The huge cloud of ash is thought to have been caused by the partial collapse of the volcano's lava dome.

After a long period of dormancy, the Soufriere Hills volcano became active in 1995, and has continued to erupt ever since.

Its eruptions have in the past rendered more than half of Montserrat uninhabitable, destroyed the capital city, Plymouth, and caused widespread evacuations.

In June 1982 British Airways Flight 9 flew into a cloud of volcanic ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung, in Indonesia, resulting in the failure of all four engines.

The Boeing 747, flying from London, was forced to glide as it fell 23,000 feet without power and some passengers wrote last notes to loved ones believing they would die.

Space view: La Soufrière erupting, seen from space

Captain Eric Moody made an announcement to the passengers that has since been described as 'a masterpiece of understatement'.

He said: 'Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. We have a small problem.

'All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them under control.

'I trust you are not in too much distress.'

Incredibly, after 12 minutes with no power the aircraft exited the ash cloud and all engines were restarted, allowing the aircraft to land safely.