OFFICIALS from an airport in northern Slovakia's Martin say that the facility has a major problem with moles that are devastating the airport's grass landing strip.
Although a tractor regularly crosses the landing area to flatten fresh molehills, new ones quickly appear, and pilots have to take great care in taking off and landing.
Juraj Filus, head of the technical maintenance section at the 13-hectare airport, estimated that there were several hundred moles living in the area.
He explained that the molehills were dangerous especially for light sport planes, which on landing experience heavy vibrations, or suffer damage to landing gear after hitting molehills.
Filus said that the airport had not yet found an efficient way of getting rid of the moles.
"The best protection against moles is a concrete landing strip," he said.
