01:53 pm - Thursday
Italian Enac: Catania's airport re-opened this morning due to the volcano
Rome, Italy - The airport crisis' unit continues monitoring the activities of Etna and of the cloud
(WAPA) - "ENAC (Italian civil aviation board) announces that from yesterday's midnight to today at 06:30 am the airspace around the airport of Catania has been closed to flight operations, due to a sudden increase of activities of volcano Etna, with simultaneous emission of volcanic ash in the form of volcanic cloud.
The phenomenon led to the closure of the civil airport of Catania-Fontanarossa and of the Sigonella's military one.
ENAC's direction of the airport of Catania immediately called the airport's crisis unit, headed by the authority itself which, acquired all the documentation produced by INGV (National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology) and by the weather bureau of Sigonella, has proceeded with the planning of the airport operations in support of the flights scheduled for today in the early morning.
At 06:30 today the Crisis Unit of the airport, noted the excellent conditions of visibility that permitted the implementation of the procedures for the situation, authorized the partial resumption of flight operations within the airspace concerned, with the normalization of airport operations.
The activity is constantly monitored in order to adapt the flights' operational situation to the ongoing volcanic activity.
The crisis' unit was reconvened for today at 4:00pm".
(Avionews)
(0035)
Direttore Clara Moschini