Air travel is one of the safest, but dangerous airports still scare people. In terms of long-distance travel, flying is the fastest and easiest way to get to your destination. The only problem is that runways are not always perfectly flat and straight. This means pilots must be specially skilled to land on an airstrip that juts out of a mountain or is in a narrow valley. Here are the 10 most dangerous airports in the world according to this indicator.
10. Airport in the city of Lukla in Nepal
The airport in Lukla serves as the main airport for those visiting Everest. What makes this airport difficult to land on is that it is nestled between mountains and has an incredibly short runway.
9. Courchevel International Airport in France
It has the shortest runway of all airports, only 525 meters. Also, the paved runway has an 18.5% downward slope, which makes takeoff even more difficult. The runway is built right into the Alps, where pilots must fly through a narrow valley even to prepare for descent. If the planes don’t pick up enough speed by the end of the runway, they’ll just fly off the cliff, hoping for the best.
8. Toncontin Airport, Tegucigalpa, Honduras
As you can see, airports in the mountains are very difficult to land due to the terrain and the often short runways. Toncontin Airport is no different. For planes to prepare for their descent, they must make a quick 45-degree bank turn to reach the runway in the valley. After that, the planes must quickly lower their altitude, being careful not to scratch the terrain directly below it. The high altitude makes flying to this city a real challenge.
7. International Airport
Princesses Juliana in Saint-Martin There is a public beach right in front of the runway. Pilots don’t care about hitting beachgoers. The runway is only 2,179 meters long, which is very short considering that it takes more than 2,500 meters for a large aircraft to successfully land here. Initially, the airport was designed for small aircraft, but the rapidly developing tourist industry has also attracted the a340 and 747 models from Airbus and Boeing.
6. Paro Airport in Bhutan, Himalayan mountains
Only 8 pilots are allowed to land on this runway, which is only 1981 meters long. It is surrounded by 5500-meter peaks. Due to the rapid descent required by large aircraft, it is considered by many to be the most dangerous airport in the world.
5. Gibraltar International Airport
This is probably the most extreme airport in Southern Europe. Although this runway is not particularly difficult to land, an interesting design feature makes it incredibly dangerous. The main street in the area, Winston Churchill Avenue, crosses the runway and must be closed when the plane plans to land. There is a brake light on the road indicating that cars must stop.
4. McMurdo Air Station, Antarctica
Not many people go to Antarctica, which means that the airport infrastructure is practically non-existent there. This runway isn’t particularly short, but it’s made of slick ice, which can cause planes to skew if the landing isn’t perfect. The temperature here is below zero on average all year round. Many months of the year it is dark all the time, and due to the lack of light, pilots are taught to land using night vision goggles.
3. Madeira Airport, Portugal
Madeira Airport is one of the few in the world where engineers are building a runway. The airstrip is located between cliffs and ocean shores. Pilots simply don’t have a place to land. When the expansion project was planned, the designers saw that the only option was to build a series of platforms on an artificial island extending from the current runway. More than 180 columns hold the runway, which must withstand severe landing shocks.
2. Mcas Futenma, Okinawa
This airport is located at the US Marine Corps airfield in Okinawa, Japan. The Navy and Marine Corps consider it the most dangerous airport in the world, where F-A-18 Hornets and V-22 Osprey constantly land. The area is strategically important to the US military, which is one of the reasons it continues to operate. The reason the airport is so dangerous is that the area that needs to be cleared for emergencies has a high density of housing. This makes it one of the worst airports in Asia and a problem for most airlines.
1. Narsarsuaq Airport, Greenland
The airport is constantly covered with ice. The runway is only 1800 meters high and runs through smooth ice and is the most difficult in the world for any pilot. The weather is constantly stormy, creating intense turbulence and low descent visibility, making it the worst airport in the world for both staff and passengers. The wind, combined with an icy runway, can cause the aircraft to veer off course. A nearby active volcano also spews ash into the clouds that can clog an engine.