Mount Etna's eruption on 5 July produced a violent ash column reaching roughly 4.5 kilometres, prompting authorities to raise the aviation alert to red and close Catania airport from Sunday evening through Tuesday morning. Airspace above the Sigonella military base was also shut due to the volcanic cloud.
By 7 July, the Voragine crater's activity had ceased, according to the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia's Etna Observatory. The alert was downgraded to orange, and flights from Catania resumed late that morning.
The eruption's impact extended well beyond Sicily. On 7 July, Etna released a massive sulfur dioxide plume that drifted across the Mediterranean, reaching Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt, as captured by Copernicus's Sentinel-5P satellite imagery published by the Adam platform.