Twitter goes into overdrive with travellers’ updates

WHEN Icelandic volanco Eyjafjallajökull began spewing its detritus into European airpace last Thursday, the virtual world exploded into a spontaneous hub of activity.

Twitter has come into its own, proving invaluable an information highway, intelligence database and agony aunt all rolled into one.

It is helping people get home, lending a sympathetic ear to stranded travellers, sharing highly technical aviation data and providing a real-time notice board with second-by-second updates on the volcano and its victims.