TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY BRISEIDA MEMA AND SALLY MAIRS
TOPSHOT - Albanian fighter jet pilot and former airforce commander Fatmir Danaj, 52, inspects a MiG-19 jet fighter inside the main tunnel of the Gjader Air Base built near the city of Lezhe, on February 5, 2019. - On a barren hillside in northern Albania lies a portal to the country's communist past: a massive steel door creaks open to reveal a hidden former air base burrowed into the heart of the mountain. Made up of 600 metres (1,980 feet) of tunnels that once teemed with military life, the secret Gjader air base is now a depot for dozens of hulking communist-era MiG jets collecting dust in the darkness. Three decades after shedding communism, Albanian authorities are still trying to sell off the Soviet and Chinese-made aircraft, of which there are dozens more in another nearby air base. (Photo by Gent SHKULLAKU / AFP)