Catania Airport: flights suspended until 6 am on Tuesday due to the eruption of Mount Etna
Several provincial roads in the province are also congested as a result of the volcano
Sac, the company managing Catania Airport, announces that, ‘due to the volcanic activity of Mount Etna and the simultaneous emission of volcanic ash into the atmosphere, the closure of the airspace corresponding to the cloud to the south-west (sector C1) has been extended, and sector B3 has been closed. All flights departing from and arriving at Catania Airport are suspended until 6 am tomorrow.”
Several provincial roads in the province are also congested as a result of the eruption of Mount Etna. The volcano’s activity and its spectacular lava flows are thrilling hikers and onlookers who, particularly as dusk falls, flock to Europe’s highest active volcano.
Lava flows have engulfed the desert-like Valle del Bove. The volcanic activity is attracting, particularly in the evening and at night, large numbers of onlookers who are walking along the Schiena dell’Asino and Serracozzo paths to reach the vantage points from which to observe the phenomenon. However, some are ill-equipped and risk getting lost, as happened to two twenty-year-olds – a young man and a young woman, both from the province of Catania – who were rescued last night by technicians from the National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps (CNSAS) from the Etna Nord station, after losing their way on the path that would have led them back to the car park at the Citelli Refuge. The pair, like hundreds of tourists who walk the volcano’s trails at night, had made their way to the vantage point from which it is possible to view the lava field formed by the two cones within the Valle del Bove and the Valle del Leone. On their way back, having lost their way and found themselves in a particularly rugged area, they called the emergency services via 112.
