Mount Etna eruption forces temporary closure of Sicily’s Catania airport

The hub was shut for about 24 hours by a layer of black dust

Volcanic ash covers the square of the Rifugio Sapienza, Nicolosi, Sicily island following Mount Etna's eruption. EPA

Sicily’s Catania airport reopened on Monday after being forced to suspend flights for a day due to “copious amounts of volcanic ash on airport surfaces”.

The hub halted flights to the popular tourist destination for around 24 hours after black gritty dust from an eruption by Mount Etna on Sunday coated planes and the runway nearby.

Boris Behncke, a volcanologist at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology’s Etna observatory, told CNN the ash was produced by a paroxysmal eruption that sent lava fountains more than 10km into the air.

The eruption ended around 9pm on Sunday, said the observatory, which did not predict if or when another phase would begin.

Flights resumed at 9am on Monday, according to the airport, which warned of possible delays to its schedules.

Loud rumbles could be heard in the region from early Sunday, the Repubblica daily said.

But heavy cloud around the volcano's summit made it impossible to see the eruptions, the National Institute for Geophysics and Vulcanology said.

The 3,330 metre volcano is one of the world’s most active. It can burst into spectacular action several times a year, firing lava and ash high over the Mediterranean island.

Its last major eruption was in 1992.

Etna is the largest of Italy’s three active volcanoes. The others are Stromboli, on the Sicilian island of the same name, and Mount Vesuvius near Naples, which last erupted in 1944.

Volcanic ash poses numerous safety risks to aircraft, causing wear to propellers, impairing visibility, and contaminating water and fuel systems. It can also lead to engine failure.

In 1982, a British Airways flight from London to Auckland lost the power of all four engines after flying through an ash cloud from Mount Galunggung. The crew managed to restart three of them and landed the flight safely in Jakarta.

In 2010, the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano led to the cancellation of more than 95,000 flights across northern Europe.