Most of the flights scheduled for Saturday at La Palma airport, in the Spanish Canary Islands archipelago, have been canceled due to the ash cloud escaping from the Cumbre Vieja volcano, which has erupted for nearly a month, according to several sources.
"
The evolution of the ash cloud, coming from the volcanic eruption of La Palma, obliges us to temporarily keep the planes in connection with the island on the ground, and this until Sunday
", announced the airline company Binter in a press release published on its website.
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The manager of Spanish airports, Aena, remains operational in La Palma, according to sources within the company, although 30 of the 34 flights scheduled for Saturday were canceled.
This is not the first time that air connections with this island in the Atlantic archipelago of the Canaries - located opposite Morocco - have been affected since the volcano erupted on September 19, for the first time in 50 years. .
In addition, the airport has had to close twice due to difficult conditions.
Third eruption in a century
The volcanic eruption on this small island of 85,000 inhabitants caused no casualties, but caused serious damage and caused the evacuation of 7,000 people, some of whom lost everything under the lava flows.
In total, 736 hectares and more than 1,800 buildings were ravaged by this volcanic eruption, which shows no signs of abating, according to new estimates from the European geospatial measurement system, Copernicus.
Very early Saturday, the island recorded the largest earthquake (4.6 degrees) since the start of the eruption, at a depth of 37 km, according to the National Geographic Institute.
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The island of La Palma is currently experiencing its third eruption in a century, after those of the San Juan volcano in 1949 and the Teneguia in 1971 - both of which caused less material damage but caused the death of three people, including two. due to inhalation of poisonous gas.
