An increasing number of hares have been causing such chaos at Milan's city airport that officials have decided to take immediate measures to try and catch them.Linate airport will close for three hours on Sunday while 200 wildlife experts go out on the runways to catch about 80 hares. Hares have been active on the runways for months, confusing the ground radar, and endangering planes landing and taking off, say officials. "In the last two weeks hares have ended up below the wheels of two planes," said Alberto Grancini,the Milan province official in charge of hunting and wildlife."They could have caused serious accidents."
The Milan airport officials said that the hare population at Linate had greatly increased this year leading to several attempts to drive them away from the airport. Unfortunately the hares have refused to leave, so the decision has been made to close the airport altogether to try to catch them.
The operation begins on Saturday, when an area of 4 square kilometres will be closed off including the runways and aircraft parking areas. The hare hunters will move in at the beginning of the day on Sunday, catching hares until 8.00 a.m. when Linate will reopen. Twelve flights will have to be rescheduled for later in the day. The hares will be taken to protected nature reserves in the Milan area and will be set free, in the hope that they do not find their way back to the airport.
Linate, which is only 7 km from the centre of Milan, was built in the 1930s, and served as the city's main airport until the modernization of Malpensa, 50 km up the road. Linate is mainly used by national carriers such as Alitalia and British Airways.