Etna forces airport closure

A dark rain of ash and cinders from Mount Etna blanketed Catania airport again on today, forcing officials to close it for the weekend.

The closure, the fourth since Etna began erupting two weeks ago, comes at the height of the summer travel season. Officials said they hoped to reopen the main airport in eastern Sicily on Monday.

Although the mountain has begun to calm down and the main lava fronts are all but stationary, it is still spewing fountains of fine gray ash a half a mile high.

Civil protection officials are heartened that most of what was coming out of Etna was gas and ash and not the fiery molten lava that had threatened the Rifugio Sapienza tourist base halfway up the volcano.