Catania Airport, flights suspended until Tuesday at 6 due to the Etna eruption

Sac, the management company of Catania airport, announces that, «due to the eruptive activity of Etna and the simultaneous emission of volcanic ash into the atmosphere, the closure of the airspace corresponding to the aerial cloud to the Southwest (sector C1) has been extended and sector B3 has been closed. All flight activities departing from and arriving at Catania airport are suspended until 6 a.m. tomorrow».

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Several provincial roads in the province are also congested due to the Etna eruption. The volcano’s activity and its spectacular lava flows excite hikers and curious onlookers who, especially from dusk onwards, flock to the highest active volcano in Europe.

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The lava flows have invaded the desert valley of Bove. The eruptive activity is attracting, especially in the evening and nighttime hours, many curious people who walk the Schiena dell’Asino and Serracozzo trails to reach the panoramic points from which to observe the phenomenon. But some are not 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) of the Etna North station, after losing the trail that would have led them back to the parking lot of Rifugio Citelli. The two, like hundreds of tourists who walk the volcano trails during nighttime hours, had gone to the panoramic point from which it is possible to observe the lava field generated by the two cones inside the Valle del Bove and Valle del Leone. During the return, losing the trail and finding themselves in a particularly rugged area, they activated rescue via 112.

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