The Fayette Citizen-News Page
Friday, September 4, 1998
Lightning causes runway potholes?

By KAY S. PEDROTTI
Staff Writer

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About 100 feet of Falcon Field's runway is under repairs for unexplained small patches of broken asphalt, Peachtree City Airport Authority members learned Tuesday.

Airport Manager Jim Savage brought to the members' table several egg-to-fist-sized chunks of the pavement to show what kinds of breakage had occurred.

The cause of the small, ragged potholes is a mystery, he said. Weather authorities and staffers say that a lightning strike "may have literally blown the holes in the runway," Savage told the authority. It's conceivable that a single strike would have caused multiple little underground explosions to cause the sporadic breakup, Savage said.

He said about 18 "pockets" of crumbled asphalt are being repaired and the area resurfaced. Each pocket is about two to five inches across, he added.

Speculation is that a lightning strike may have occurred about two weeks ago, when a thunderstorm passed through and knocked out about five runway lights, Savage said.


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