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31/03/2022

Seventeen scariest airports in the world. Where pilots maneuver to land on the subway

September 9, 2009, updated 18:15 Pilots landing at these airports must belong to the air elite. For example, the airport on the island of Saba, which experts consider the most dangerous in the world, measures only 396 meters. Landing at Funchal Airport in Madeira, in turn, requires a special turn just before landing. Photo gallery 35

Princess Juliana International Airport is located next to Maho Beach on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten | photo: Profimedia.cz

Paro Airport, Bhutan

Paro is the main international airport in Bhutan in the Himalayas. It is hidden in the valley and the peaks of the surrounding mountains reach an altitude of about 4,900 m. Only specially trained pilots can land there, able to maneuver the plane safely in a narrow corridor between the wooded mountains.

Princess Juliana International Airport, Sint Maarten Island, Caribbean Sea

The biggest problem of this airport is the length of the runway, only 2,180 meters, which is enough for small and medium aircraft. Nevertheless, this airport is the second busiest in the Caribbean and giant aircraft such as the Boeing 747 or Airbus A340 land here. When taking off or landing, they fly just above the fence that separates the runway from the nearby beach. For tourists, watching aircraft directly from the fence is a famous attraction.

Read

Maho Beach: The noisiest beach in the world, where you will be blown away by a jumbo while swimming

Reagan National Airport, Washington, DC, USA

Washington Airport is right in the center of two overlapping air currents. Its location requires pilots to stick to the Potomac River while descending while avoiding the Pentagon and CIA buildings.

Conversely, during takeoff, pilots must climb rapidly along the left bank of the river to avoid the White House.

Gibraltar Airport, Gibraltar

Gibraltar Airport is surrounded on two sides by the sea, on the east side of the Mediterranean, on the west side by the Gulf of Algeciras. The airport runway measures only 1,828 meters, so pilots must be very precise when landing and taking off.

Matekane Runway, Lesotho, Africa

This runway is located on the edge of the mountain at an altitude of 2,030 meters. This position alone is a problem for pilots, and the runway is 399 meters long. Even before taking off, you watch the 600-meter-high wall rising in front of you at all times.

Barra Airport, Scotland, United Kingdom

The airport is on the outside of the Scottish island of Barra, in a wide shallow bay. The smoothness of the landing depends on when the tide stops.

Toncontín Airport, Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Honduras Capital Airport is located at 1,000 meters above sea level. It is not possible to land here with an aircraft larger than a Boeing 757, because the runway measures only 1,862 meters. To get to the airport, the pilot must fly through mountainous terrain and, just before landing, overcome a 45-degree turn to land safely in the valley.

JF Kennedy Airport, New York, USA

Pilots must avoid other planes heading to New York's Newark and LaGuardia airports near JFK during the landing maneuver.

Anti-noise measures were introduced as early as 1964. Pilots must have a visibility of eight kilometers before landing on the 13L runway.

Madeira Airport, Funchal, Portugal

Madeira Airport is wedged between the mountains and the Atlantic. Therefore, pilots must be very precise when landing and specially trained for this landing maneuver. The unique project helped extend the runway to 2,743 meters, yet the approach to the legendary RWY5 is still quite scary. The pilot must direct the aircraft directly to the mountains and turn it on the runway at the last minute.

Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport, Saba, Netherlands Antilles

This is the only airport on the island of Saba in the Netherlands Antilles in the Caribbean. It is known as the shortest cobbled airport in the world with a length of only 396 meters. The area of the airport occupies a relatively large part of the tiny island, and although no major accidents have occurred so far, many experts consider it to be the most dangerous airport in the world.

Sedmnáct nejděsivějších letišť světa. Kde piloti manévrují přistání na metry

READERS 'TIPS at the dangerous and unique airport of Kerkyra, Corfu, Greece

There is the smallest runway in southern Europe in Kerkyra, Corfu, writes Petr Sojka, who was here on vacation two years ago. Pilots must have special training, because on one side is the sea and on the other the highest mountain of Corfu, Pantokrator. This runway is only 2,375 meters long.

Kerkyra, Corfu. Author: Petr Sojka

Nepal, Lukla (Tenzing-Hillary Airport)

The area of this airport is interesting in that it is quite steep - a 12 percent climb over a length of 527 meters; the track is 20 meters wide. Landing is really an experience, writes Zdeněk Lanc, who tried it on his own.

Lukla, Nepal. Author: Zdeněk Lanc

Skiathos, Greece

The airport has the nickname European St. Maarten, wrote Dalibor Blažek. At one end of the runway measuring 1,628 x 30 meters there is a road, on the other side there is a beach below the runway.

Skiathos, Greece. Author: Dalibor Blažek

Samedan, Saint Moritz, Switzerland

It is the highest airport in Europe, a relatively short runway and there is no air traffic control service, writes Jan ČAMEK, a pilot of Seagle Air. However, due to the attractiveness of the location for the rich, hundreds of jets fly here every year, including Boeing 737s in VIP format (passengers then often continue by helicopter directly to the piste ...).

Samedan, Saint Moritz, Switzerland. Author: Jan Čamek

Bolzano, Italy

The track is a little over one kilometer long, arriving through the valley, which, however, zigzags and high rocks enter it. Practically trained pilots with a stamp from the Italian Civil Aviation Authority can fly there practically in bad weather.

Approaching this airport is extreme, the angle of descent is approximately double that of regular airports, which some aircraft are not able to handle at all. Therefore, this airport (as well as, for example, London-City) must be certified for the so-called Steep Approach - a steep descent. The runway is practically usable in Bolzano only for small jet aircraft and turboprop aircraft of the ATR or Dash-8 type. This tip was also sent to the editors by Jan Čamek, a Seagle Air pilot.

Bolzano, Italy. Author: Jan Čamek

Naga City Airport, Camarines Sur, Luzon Island, Philippines

At the northeast end, the runway, which measures 1,006 meters, passes into the slopes of the active volcano Mt. Isarog (1,966 m above sea level), so depending on the weather conditions, the landing has two options: relaxed from the southwest and horror from the northeast, where the aircraft must approach the volcano at a low altitude and turn sharply on the runway. The most common weather is cloudy with rain, Mt. Isarog has a practically permanent blanket of clouds at the top.

I completed about 6 takeoffs and landings with a Boeing 737 and all landings by Mt. Isarogu was really memorable, wrote Jan Pavlík.

Naga, Philippines. Author: Jan Pavlík

Chuuk International Airport, Weno, Micronesia

This year we were in Micronesia (Federated States of Micronesia) and the flight from Guam to Honolulu has three stopovers on the individual islands of this federal republic. All three airports are located on the edges of the islands and are pushed into the ocean. The beginning and the end is the ocean, writes Petr Michna, adding that the photos are from landing on Chuuku in Weno. The runway is 1,829 meters long and 46 meters wide.

Chuuk International Airport, Weno, Micronesia. Author: Silvie Hrnová

tip for another airport

Do you have experience of other airports in the world that you think are not the safest or are unique? Share your tip with other readers in the discussion or write and send us photos. We will reward the published contribution with your own photos with a fee.

Authors: tom Libuše Tomanová († 2019), based on www.Tourism-Review.com

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Themes: Africa, Airbus, Bhutan, White House, Philippines, Funchal, Gibraltar, Himalayas, Honduras, Italy, Lesotho, Skiing in Italy, Madeira, Micronesia, New York, Netherlands Antilles, Greece, Scotland, Switzerland, United Kingdom

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