The travel plans of hundreds of East Lancashire holidaymakers were disrupted again today after ash from an Icelandic volcano continued to cause chaos.

Travellers were forced to either cancel their plans, or make alternative arrangements, with unprecedented restrictions still placed on air travel.

Among those caught up in the havoc were two East Lancashire families stranded in the US after their plane was turned back mid-flight.

Tony and Tracey Keefe, their sons Alex, 12, Tom, eight, along with David and Wendy Barnes, and their 12-year-old daughter Amelia, were three hours into a flight from Miami to Manchester on Wednesday when their plane was forced to return to Atlanta, Georgia.

The families, from Chorley, were due back in Manchester at 8am on Thursday. They have now been told they are booked on the next available flight to Manchester – on Friday, April 23.

Tony, who runs Chorley Denture Services, in Gillibrand Street, said: “Everything was going as planned until the plane suddenly banked left and we turned round. The pilot told us that no flights were allowed into Europe and we headed back to Atlanta.”

David, 40, who lives in Whittle-le-Woods, said they had been informed by their insurers that they were liable for any added expense.

The travel chaos has also caused huge problems for Althams, East Lanc-ashire’s biggest travel agency.

General manager Peter Mackie said the ash, which has floated in airspace above Britain for 48 hours, had created the biggest challenges in his 44 years at the firm. He said: “As far as disruption goes, this is worse than September 11 because everything is grounded. We will lose some commission and carry some losses, but I don’t know the total picture yet.”

The no-fly zone above Britain has also prevented professional Pakistani cricketer Naved Arif from making his debut for Rawtenstall in a friendly tomorrow.

Yesterday, a Nelson family of ten were prevented from going on their dream holiday to Florida’s Disneyland.

Donna Thomas, 37, who was with her three children, partner, mother, nephews and nieces, said: “It was chaos. On our flight alone there were 480 people waiting to check in. No one had a clue what they should be doing.

"We couldn’t move or breathe. Trying to find a rep was chaos. I just feel so gutted.

“We only found out what was going on when we got here, nobody said anything.

"We were told to contact our tour operators but they didn’t open until 9am, we just couldn’t do anything.

“We finally got in touch with Thomson in Burnley who we booked the holiday with and we have booked an alternative flight on Sunday.

“Why did the volcano pick today to erupt?”

The family will now lose a day’s holiday, and have to pay an extra £180 to rebook a minibus to take them to and from the airport for another flight on Sunday.

Another couple Jean, 69, and Jack, 82, Pinder, who emigrated from Longridge to Toronto, visited the town for three weeks for a burial.

They were scheduled to leave at 1.10pm yesterday and arrived for check-in at 10am, but airport bosses confirmed they would not be flying when they arrived.

Jean said: “The taxi driver called us to see if we were going, but we called KLM and were waiting 30 minutes on the phone, but still couldn’t get through to someone, so we decided to leave for the airport.

"It was the lesser evil. There is nothing we can do about it, but the airport has been orderly and we have been rebooked onto a flight for Saturday.”

Hazel Wilson, 58, from Audley, Blackburn, had met her sister and mum at the airport at 7am for a flight to Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, for a week-long cruise, to find the 10.30am flight been cancelled.

She said: “We found out what had happened when we got to the airport.

"We had heard rumours about it, but thought it would blow away, being an optimist.

“Everybody is so nice, but the information has been sketchy.

"It was an act of God and we just have to keep listening to the announcements.

"It is a little frustrating because you build yourself up to go on holiday.”

Trading Standards have advised passengers they do have some rights to refunds, or alternative routing, but are not entitled to compensation.