Ash from Mount Etna volcano forces closure of Sicily's busiest airport during peak holiday week

BREAKING: Ash from Mount Etna forces closure of Catania airport, Sicily's busiest, during peak holiday week, with flights suspended as the volcano keeps erupting.

Mount Etna just shut down Sicily's busiest airport in peak holiday week.

Ash from the eruption has forced Catania airport to suspend flights, and the volcano isn't done. It's still erupting. This picture gives you a sense of the scale, watchers on the slopes overnight with the summit glowing behind them.

Catania handles the bulk of Sicily's holiday traffic, and mid August is exactly when the island is fullest. So you've got planes that can't land, planes that can't leave, and tens of thousands of travellers stuck at the peak of the season. Airlines hate volcanic ash for good reason, it gets into engines and grounds everything until the cloud clears.

The hard part is that nobody schedules a volcano. Flights resume when Etna decides they resume, and right now Etna is still talking. If you're flying to or from Sicily this week, check before you leave the house.

This is Liu Yang, reporting for HIT.

Source Read the original reporting at euronews.com