While the majority of people in the world are scared of air travel, it is still one of the safest modes of transportations. While this is true, this statistical analysis only goes down the drain when we compare it with the scariest airports in the world to land at.
These airports are dangerous due to many reasons and some of them are as follows.
- Short runways
- Turbulent weather
- High winds
- Geographically baffling landing strips
Just imagine an airport where only eight trained pilots in the world are allowed to land a plane. Or what d you think about an airport that actually really shares a four-lane highway that is completely shut down when a plane either takes off or land.
The airports in our list today can scare anyone out of their minds. As a warning, if you have a serious fear of flight, then go right ahead and just stop reading this article any further.
Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport Has The Shortest Runway In The World
The location of Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport is in Saba in the Caribbean Islands. For the travelers who want to land in Saba, they must first land at the Juancho E. Yrausquin, which is the only airport on the island.
The scariest thing about this airport is that it is the shortest commercial airport in the world as it measures only at 1312 feet. The pilot has no room to make an error in landing as the runway ends with the Caribbean Sea with cliffs at the end of both sides.
Tenzing-Hillary Airport Is Carved Into A Mountainside
The adventurers who plan to scale the world’s tallest mountain, Mount Everest, they must first land at the Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Nepal. The airport itself is a sort of challenge to prepare the adventurers for what’s coming next. The runway strip is not only short at 1729 feet but it is actually atop a steep cliff that is carved into the mountainside.
The harsh variable weather in this region actually makes the landing all the more hard for pilots. To make matters worse, there is also no radar system in the airport.
Only Eight Pilots In The World Are Allowed To Land At Paro Airport
Paro Airport of Bhutan is located in the mountains of Himalayas with a runaway strip measuring to be 6500 feet long. This airport has been labeled by Boeing as the “one of the world’s most difficult [airports] for takeoffs and landings.”
The airport’s landing difficult can be gauged by the fact that only 8 pilots in the whole world are qualified to land in this remote region airport. In fact, since 2011, only one airline has been able to land its planes on this airport.
Princess Juliana International Airport Forces Pilots To Circle Back To Avoid The Mountains
The runway strip of the Princess Juliana Airport in the Caribbean island of St. Martin is less than half of an average international airport runway. The reason is that St. Martin is a famed tourist spot. The aircraft actually have to cruise into the airport above the crowded beach of Maho Beach. The trickiest and the scariest part of the landing is that the aircraft has to circle back over the beach to avoid the mountains before making the landing.
Courchevel Airport Has A Short Runway And Is Situated In The Alps
Courchevel Airport which is located in the Alps of France features one of the shortest runway strips in the world measuring at 1722 feet length. The landing strip is uphill with a gradient of 18.5 percent that helps the aircraft to slow down before it runs out of the runaway.
An interesting factoid, this airport has also been featured in the 1997’s James Bond movie titled “Tomorrow Never Dies”.
The Runway At Gibraltar International Airport Intersects With A Four-Lane Highway
The Gibraltar International Airport which is located in a small British enclave near Spain, the airport shares a major four-lane road with the city’s traffic. Before landing or taking off of an aircraft he traffic gets stopped for about 10 minutes on the four lanes Winston Churchill Avenue.
Gustaf III Airport Is Considered The Third Most Treacherous In The World
Gustaf III in St. Barts is currently ranked as the world’s Third Most Treacherous Airport. Pilots must navigate through a sharp descent over a mountain which often has high winds and land on the airport with a runway strip measured at a length of 2132 feet as compared to an average runway strip of 18044 feet length.
Barra Airport’s Runway Is Underwater During High Tide
The Barra Airport located in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland is one of a kind. This airport is the only one in the world that uses a beach as its runway. This airport actually disappears twice in a day when the high tide from Tràigh Mhòr washes it away.
While it is one of the scariest airports in the world, it has also been labeled as the “Most Scenic Airport in the World”.
Sandane Airport Features A Narrow Landing Area And Heavy Winds
Sandane Airport is nestled on a peninsula between two fjords; Nordfjorden and Gloppefjorden, in Norway. The airport has an asphalt runway that measures a little over 3000 feet. The location of the airport in an extremely narrow space makes the landing a difficult process for pilots.
If the narrow and short runway trip was not enough, the landing is made all the scarier with heavy winds and turbulence.
Nantucket Memorial Airport Is Often Surrounded By Heavy Fog
Nantucket Island located in Massachusetts has been nicknamed as the “Grey lady”. The reason for this name is because the fog engulfs this whole Island in only a matter of seconds. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the fog makes the flying a difficult task.
Related Content
