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A 33-YEAR-OLD DAD, FROM EDINBURGH, HAS TOLD HOW HE WATCHED A CLOUD OF ASH RISING FROM MOUNT ETNA WITH THE VOLCANO ERUPTING THIS MORNING AS HIS EASYJET FLIGHT PASSED BY 21:54, 02 Jun 2025 A
passenger has told how people on his easyJet flight from the UK panicked after seeing the cloud of ash rising from Mount Etna which erupted today as they flew into Sicily. The 33-year-old
dad looked on as the plane passed by Sicily and he could see Etna on a clear day with the grey clouds of ash above it. He took a photo at around 10.30am with the eruption starting around
3.50am local time (2.50am BST), while volcanic tremors began around midnight local time. But he said that most passengers began "panicking" once the plane, which had taken off from
Edinburgh, had landed and checked their phones as he thinks they didn't realise what had happened. The dad from Currie told Edinburgh Live: "If I’m honest, I don’t think anyone
knew at all what was going on, and I didn’t want to alarm anyone by announcing that I thought that was the volcano erupting! It wasn’t until we landed and checked our phones that everyone
started panicking a little bit." The level of alert due to the volcanic activity was raised at the Catania airport, but no immediate interruptions were reported. An official update
declared the ash cloud emission had ended by the afternoon. Article continues below The volcano is a popular tourist destination visited by nearly 1.5 million people per year. The UNESCO
World Heritage site is one of the most active volcanoes in the world, with its documented eruptive history dating back at least 2,700 years. Etna experienced another large eruption earlier
this year in February, which saw lava flows disrupt visitors and brought skiing on the island to a halt. Italy’s INGV National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology said the spectacle on
Europe’s most active volcano was caused when part of the southeast crater collapsed, resulting in hot lava flows. It was the 14th eruptive phase in recent months. The area of danger was
confined to the summit of Etna, which was closed to tourists as a precaution, according to Stefano Branca, an INGV official in Catania. Sicily’s president, Renato Schifani, said lava flows
emitted in the eruption had not passed the natural containment area, “and posed no danger to the population.” Article continues below The event was also captured in video and photos from the
ground that went viral on social media. Tremors from the eruption were widely felt in the towns and villages on Mount Etna’s flanks, Italian media reported. Video showed tourists running
along a path on the flank of the vast volcano with smoke billowing some distance in the background. Excursions are popular on Etna, which is some 3,300 meters (nearly 11,000 feet) high, with
a surface area of some 460 square miles.