Many pilots believe that the most dangerous stages of a flight are taking off and landing. But there are airports in the world where even highly professional pilots find it scary to take a plane into the air and land – they have to perform real maneuvering miracles! Below is a selection of the most dangerous airports in the world.
- Airport on the island of Madeira in Portugal
The airport in question was built in 1964. During its existence it has changed several names: Santa Catarina, Funchal, Madeira, and since 2016 it is the Cristiano Ronaldo airport.
It was classified as one of the most dangerous airports in the world in 1977, after a terrible plane crash that claimed the lives of 131 people. The runway was too short and the pilot missed his landing by about 300 meters, so the plane crashed into a mountain.
The extended runway at Madeira Island
The work to extend the runway lasted eight years and now has a length of 2,777 meters. Most of it is a trestle based on reinforced concrete pillars. There are 180 of them, all with a diameter of 3 meters and some with a height of up to 50 meters.
Thanks to this engineering solution it has been possible to reduce to some extent the danger of landing in the Madeira harbor. Although the airfield is still one of the most extreme airfields on the planet, ranking 13th among them.
- Narsarsuaq Airfield in Greenland
At number 12 on this list is Narsarsuaq Airport, standing north of the town of Narsak. It is the most important transportation interchange in South Greenland and Greenland’s only international airfield.
In addition, Narsarsuaq is also a real historical landmark: it appeared in 1941 as an American-owned military base Blue West One. Nowadays the airfield is used for flights to Greenland, Copenhagen and in summer time to Reykjavik, repeating the path of the warplanes flown during World War II.
Narsarsuaq runway from above
The airfield has one runway made of concrete slabs – its length is 1830 meters and width is 45 meters.
The length of the runway and the many nearby fjords are not the only hazards. There is increased turbulence in the area, even when there is not the usual strong and gusty winds. Only well-trained and experienced professionals are allowed to fly in this area with such extreme climatic conditions.
11. Bamda Airport in China.
Bamda is the highest airfield in the world, located among the mountains of Tibet, at an altitude of 4,334 meters above sea level.
No less shocking than the altitude is the runway: it is the longest in the world among civilian airports at 5,500 meters. Such a long runway may seem superfluous, but in the rarefied air this is of paramount importance. Because of the thin air high up in the mountains the engines become much more difficult to operate and the resulting reduced thrust, which in turn prevents the aircraft from taking off quickly. This is the main reason why Bamdah is ranked as the 11th most difficult airport in the world to land and take off.
- Ice runway at Novolazarevskaya station in Antarctica
In 1961 the Soviet Antarctic station Novolazarevskaya was established on the coast of the Queen Maud Land, about 80 km from the Lazarev Sea.
Novolazarevskaya station airfield
Plane takeoff from Novolazarevskaya Antarctic station
In 1979, 12 km south of it, an airfield was built for receiving the IL-76. The airfield is one of the largest in Antarctica, it is equipped with concrete parking lots and tracks for takeoffs and landings.
It is the 10th most dangerous and scary airfield on our planet. The extreme climatic conditions, rather than the airport’s location, pose a particular danger. The real and really scary problem can be the weight of the plane – a huge machine is capable of breaking through the ice or loading in the soft snow cover.
- Princess Juliana Airport on St. Martin’s Island in the Netherlands
Another of the world’s most terrifying airfields is Princess Juliana International Airport. The end of its runway sits close to the popular Maho beach.
When landing the planes fly low over the beach (10-20 m), almost hitting the tourists. Gorgeous photos of one of the most dangerous airports in the world and vivid impressions from the sight of huge machines flying overhead guaranteed.
Takeoffs here are just as extreme and difficult: the pilot has to make a sharp U-shaped turn to avoid hitting a rock on the course.
The shockwave from the engines is so frightening that it literally knocks down many curious extremists watching the flights from Maho Beach.
- Tonkotin Airport in Honduras
The next, 8th on the list, of the world’s scariest airports is Toncontin, operating in Honduras, in the capital city of Tegucigalpa.
The airport is built in a valley surrounded by mountains. The runways are situated at an altitude of 1005 m above sea level and are no more than 2163 m long. As the routes are very short and close to the mountains, aircraft have to negotiate a 45° angle to the ground. The winds create another problem as they force the planes to make adjustments in the last few seconds.
Airport accident in Honduras
In the spring of 2008, the plane of the airline TACA couldn’t keep its position on the runway and crashed into several cars parked on the quay, destroying several of them. Sixty-five people were injured and five died. This is not the first terrible accident at Toncontin Airport; in the fall of 1989, a TAN-SAHSA jetliner struck a rock during its landing. The death toll from that crash was high, with 131 of the 146 people aboard killed.
Despite such terrible risk factors, this extreme airfield receives many flights every day.
- Kansai Airport in Japan
Kansai International Airport is an ensemble of structures erected right in the sea, on an artificially constructed island in Osaka Bay near the city of Osaka. The island is 4 km long and 2.5 km wide.
Unfortunately, even Japanese engineers failed to calculate the terrible rate at which Kansai will sink underwater: in 1994 alone the island subsided by 50 cm. Now this rate has significantly decreased, but it had to resort to active measures and to spend billions of dollars additionally.
Kansai, a masterpiece of engineering, is the 7th most dangerous airborne harbor in the world.
- Gustaf III Airport in St. Barthélemy
Gustaf III Airport, also known as Saint Barthelemy, is located in the waters of the Caribbean Sea, on the island of Saint Barthelemy.
The runway is only 650 meters long and is built in an incredibly narrow corridor, bounded on its sides by rocks. During landing the aircrafts approach the slopes extremely close to the rocks, so that they are in danger of falling straight into the ocean.
Gustaf III is a well-deserved 6th place among airports with scary landing conditions.
- Courchevel Airport in France
The next of the airports globally recognized as scary and dangerous is Courchevel, which serves the French resort of the same name.
Airport is located among the mountains, 2000 m above sea level. The runway at the airport is extremely short with a length of 525m and a gradient of 18.5°.
Courchevel Airport
The functionality of the airport is also limited by technical conditions due to the lack of a navigation instrument landing pattern. This means that landing in fog or low clouds is not possible.
By the way, the extreme Courchevel became world famous thanks to the movie “Tomorrow Never Dies”. In the film there is a scene where James Bond lands a plane on the dangerous and even scary landing strip of this small airport in France.
- Tenzing and Hillary Airport in Nepal
Eastern Nepal has a dangerous and extreme airport, ranked #4 in the ranking, it is the Tenzing Norgei and Edmund Hillary Airport, who gained world fame as the first Everest conquerors. Until 2008, the airfield was known as Lukla Airport.
The runway is only 527 meters long and has a gradient of 12° which gives it a height difference of 60 meters at the ends. The difficult terrain has led to one end of the runway being used for landings, on the edge of a 700 m deep precipice, while the other is used for takeoffs, on the bottom of a 4,000 m high ridge.
An additional and very scary danger here is caused by thick clouds and strong winds.
The title “the most extreme airport in the world” was earned by this airport for another reason: takeoffs and landings are carried out only by VFR, because of all known navigation systems only a radio station is used here.
- Matekane airstrip in the Kingdom of Lesotho
The Matecane airstrip is the name given to the airport in the Kingdom of Lesotho. In fact, it is not an airport in the usual sense of the world: the runway stretches on a mountain plateau with a length of 400 meters, ending with a precipice deep 600 meters.
It is rare for any aircraft to accelerate and climb before this runway ends. When the project was designed, engineers assumed that planes would go into free-fall on takeoff to gain the required altitude.
In 2009, local and international flights were banned at this extreme airport. But for private small flights, this dangerous and extreme airport continues to be used even now.
It ranks among the airports in the world with the most terrifying flying conditions – 3.
- Huancho irauskin airport on the island of saba in the netherlands
Juancho-Irauskin, designed for international flights, is the world’s most dangerous airport near the sea and the 2nd most extreme. It is located among the waters of the Caribbean Sea, on the island of Saba, and is designed to land only three types of aircraft.
Windward Islands AirwaysWindward Islands Airways aircraft
The airfield is equipped with the shortest runway in the world (about 400m), surrounded by steep cliffs and the sea. Adding to the difficulty is a very strong wind, which is also constantly changing its direction.
Flights are flown only by crews of local airline Windward Islands Airways, specially trained. For private flights Huancho-Irauskin is closed, because the slightest mistake during takeoff or landing will lead to terrible consequences!
- Paro Airport in the Kingdom of Bhutan
Paro Airport is located 6 km from the city of Paro in a small valley of the Paro River, surrounded by the 5 km high peaks of the Himalayas.
Paro Airport
The location is the reason why the airport is considered the most extreme landing harbor in the world as the crew has to make incredible turns in the mountains. Taking off is no less terrifying or dangerous: the plane spirals right above the airport, gradually gaining altitude and rising over the Himalayas. Such stunts are only possible during the day and only in good weather conditions.
All over the world only a few pilots (according to different sources from 8 to 25 professionals) are licensed and authorized to perform such rapid and extreme maneuvers in dangerous conditions.