The yearly Frisian Flag exercise at Leeuwarden Air Base was scheduled from 12 – 23 April 2010. This 2010 edition promised to be an interesting one but had to be ended after three days due to the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland.

Promising start of Frisian Flag
The arrivals of the participants started on 8 April 2010 when the Polish Air Force arrived with six F-16s. One day later most of the participants
arrived. In the early morning first six F-4Fs from Wittmund AB, Germany arrived, followed by six Swedish JAS-39s, eight F-16s from the Royal Norwegian Air Force and six Dutch F-16s from Volkel AB. The Finish Air Force arrived on
Sunday with six F-18s. On Monday, the final participants in the form of eight F-15s from RAF Lakenheath arrived. On Monday and Tuesday two missions were flown. On Wednesday the German Air
Force decided to ground their F-4Fs due to possible ejection seat problems. But even without the German the exercise was well worth visiting especially due to the absolute perfect weather. No clouds in sight, 13 sun hours a day and more
than 50 aircraft, all the ingredients for a perfect exercise. But then there was the Icelandic volcano eruption…

The Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption
Seismic activity on Iceland started at the end of 2009 and gradually increased in intensity until a small eruption took place on 20 March 2010. From 14 April 2010 on, the eruption entered a second phase and blew enormous clouds of ash in Southwestern direction towards Europe. There was large concern that the ash would damage aircraft engines and so the controlled airspace of most European countries was closed for traffic on Thursday 15 April 2010. Therefore, the Frisian Flag morning mission on that day was cancelled immediately after take-off and all aircraft returned to base. It meant the end of this years’ Frisian Flag. The foreign participants decided to return to their home bases when a brief spell in the ash clouds gave them the opportunity to leave. It was not until Thursday 20 April 2010 that flying was resumed. Unfortunately, at that moment all the participants already had returned to their homeland.