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1. Lukla Airport: Nepal
One end of the very high and very small Lukla Airport in Nepal drops off in a 2000 mile cliff while the other side runs into a stone wall with a walkway to a Buddhist shrine. Yet, the mere 1,729 feet airport is the busiest in the country as you need to go through here if you are visiting Mt Everest. The other option is to go for a five-day trek after an 11-hour bus journey from Kathmandu.
The runways are short and electricity is poor which means pilots often have trouble contacting the air controllers on the ground and need to land the plane without assistance. Nevertheless, coming to this place nestled in the Himalayas is an awe-striking experience.
Also, the airport was built all the way back in the 1940s by Sir Edmund Hillary, though it was only paved in 2001. This gave the airport's original name -- Tenzing-Hillary Airport.
2. Toncontin Airport: Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Landing a flight in this city is a challenge. To reach this dangerous airport in a valley located 3,294 feet above the sea level, pilots must make a sharp 45-degree turn amidst mountains and then quickly descent while making sure the underside of the airplane doesn't scrape the terrain below.
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Heavy winds often require pilots to zig zag while descending. Taking off is another stressful event as the planes would need to steer clear of the high peaks.
3. Courchevel International Airport: France
While the airport at Lukla has a dangerously short runway of only 1,729 feet, the one at Courchevel Airport is even shorter at 1722 feet. This airport drops off in a cliff as well; so pilots need to make sure they garner enough speed before the drop.
After maneuvering the plane through the Alps, the plane needs to touch down at an angle stooped towards the front as the French airport is sloped at a downward gradient of 18.5 per cent. This makes taking off even more dangerous than landing here.
4. Princess Juliana International Airport: St Maarten
What makes this airport on the Caribbean one of the most dangerous in the world is not how dangerously close to humans the plane gets while landing; it is the fact that heavy aaircraft often need to land on a runway which is shorter than their length.
At just 7,150 feet long, the runway was built for smaller aircrafts. But plans had to change with the boost in tourism and now, big planes such as A340s and the 747s also need to land here at times which need 8,000 to 10,000 feet.
To reach the runway, the pilot crosses a narrow strip of the beach while blowing wind and sand from right above the heads of visitors on the beach, and crosses a fence and a road to reach the landing spot. |
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English
AHAFlier 
2020-05-12 07:30
