The highest airport. The most dangerous airports in the world The highest airports in the world

Many people are afraid to fly, but, according to many pilots, it is dangerous, and not the flight itself is terrible, but the takeoff and landing of the aircraft. According to statistics we all love, every 6 people on the planet experience exciting sensations during a flight or while waiting for a flight.

But there are those who are happy to go on a trip, and even better if it is filled with extreme sports and adrenaline. In order to secure the former and please the latter, we have prepared list of the most dangerous airports in the world, and it is not surprising that almost all of them are in exotic and distant countries. So go ahead for a suitcase and new exciting experiences!

1. Saba Island. AirportJuanchoE.Yrausquin. This airport is equipped with a runway - 400 meters, which is the smallest in the world. On the one hand, the strip rests against the mountains, and on the other hand, it ends with a cliff over the Caribbean Sea. According to official data, this airport is closed, but there are exceptions (they are made by the aviation of the Netherlands).

2. Tibet, Chamdo district. AirportQamdoBamda. It is located at an altitude of 4334 meters above sea level and is the highest airport in the world. Due to the thinness of the air (which affects the engines), the runway is one of the longest at 5,500 meters.

3. Antarctica. AirportIcerunway. It is generally difficult to call it an airport, most of all it looks like a large well-groomed piece of ice. However, many planes (mostly cargo planes) regularly take off and land, each time overcoming snow and cold.

4. Gibraltar. AirportGibraltar. It can rightly be called an engineering nightmare, as car roads, and the airport itself is located just 500 meters from the city center.

5. Portugal. AirportMadeira. The airport is located literally at the junction of mountains and the sea, and the runway is more like a bridge. In order to lengthen it, 180 columns had to be installed, the height of which was about 60 meters.

6.Sep-Marten. AirportPrincess Juliana. Even during the Second World War, an airfield was built here, today it is the largest international Airport Caribbean region.

The danger of the runway is that it is located close to the beach. Planes run regularly and fly just 15 meters above the heads of vacationers.

7.France. AirportCourchevel. The most popular resort in the world could not do without an airport, so they found a way out, built one of the most dangerous in the world. The runway stretches for only 525 meters, and even be under a slope of 18.5 degrees. Moreover, the functionality of the airport is limited during fog.

8.Butane. Airportparo. This international airport is located at an altitude of more than 2,000 meters above sea level, and its surroundings are peaks of 5,000 and above. Accordingly, one can imagine how professional a pilot must be, who decided on one of the most difficult takeoffs / landings. By the way, there are only 8 such pilots in the world (who are considered quite qualified).

9.Svalbard (Svalbard, Grumant). AirportSvalbard.It is located on the territory of the polar archipelago and is the northernmost civil airport in the world, it is also the largest structure in the archipelago. Its closest neighbor is Mount Platoberge. The airport has the status of an international one, since it makes direct flights not only to Oslo, Ny-Ålesund and Seva, but also to Barentsburg.

10. Honduras. AirportToncontin. In fact, it is possible not to use this airport, but this is Honduras. Its danger lies not only in geographical location, but also in the fact that it is surrounded by mountains, and also equipped with a runway that is too short, from which it is easy enough for planes to slide off.

In fact, this is not the whole list of the most dangerous airports in the world, most are located in very small and inconspicuous towns and look so terrifying that this is a completely different topic, for example, “which airports should never be visited by anyone.” It's amazing how often human ingenuity works against the person himself.

In fact, all takeoffs and landings at these airports are professional pilots with a lot of experience, but this does not mean at all that everything depends on them.

Airports are already dangerous, and if the weather conditions are unfavorable, and you decide on such a flight, it is better to linger in one of these beautiful places and enjoy the local beauty for another day or two, thereby saving your life and getting additional positive emotions.

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Juancho-Irauskin Airport is located on the island of Saba, which is part of the Lesser Antilles archipelago. Geographically, Saba is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands with broad autonomous powers. The geography and relief of the island are such that there are no convenient bays for mooring ships, and the coasts are steep and impregnable. Therefore the alternatives aviation transport actually not here. The airport runway is quite narrow, built on a tiny flat area near the coast. The overhanging rocks close to the field, on the one hand, and the open sea, on the other, make it difficult to land and take off. The length of the strip does not exceed three hundred meters. Only light-engine aircraft, led by experienced pilots, can take off and land here.

Kamdo-Bamda Airport is located in Chamdo County in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It is the highest airport in the world, its height above sea level is 4334 meters. The highlands of Tibet are a rather impregnable place, and getting here, except by plane, is almost impossible. The runway of the airport is approximately 3500 meters. For an ordinary airport, this is more than enough, but for Kamdo Banda, located in the highlands, this is a minuscule amount, which is unlikely to be allowed to slow down the plane during landing in rarefied air. And therefore, only small planes with a small number of passengers fly here.

Gustav III Airport is located on french island Saint Barthelemy (Saint Barth) is part of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. The whole danger of the airport lies in the fact that the corridor with the runway is very narrow, and the planes, when landing, have to approach dangerously close to the slopes of the hills, while risking falling into the ocean on the other side.

This airport located in this picturesque mountain French resort. The danger of Courchevel Airport lies in the fact that its runway is surrounded on all sides by the mountain spurs of the Alps, which allows small aircraft to fly here with highly qualified pilots.

This airport is located on the island of the same name as part of the archipelago of the same name in the North-East Atlantic, which is a territorial component of Portugal. The two main runways of Madeira Airport are only 860 meters long. The airport and its lanes are sandwiched between the waters of the Atlantic and the mountains. The pilots of the aircraft must come in for a landing, first directing their cars to the mountains, and then at the very last moment turn sharply to the right.

Airports in Nepal, Gibraltar and Honduras were not included in our review, where the main components of their danger are either highlands or mountainous relief terrain or limited areas on which their runways are located.

A large number of people are sincerely afraid of air travel, and everyone has their own reasons for this. People who understand air transport and the features of its management are well aware that the most dangerous during flights is takeoff and landing operations. Of course, we must not forget about natural factors that affect calmness during the trip, including rocky terrain, mountains, sandy coasts and other features of the natural landscape that must be taken into account by the crew of airliners. Further, the most dangerous airports in the world will be considered, on which take-off and landing maneuvers require special skill and utmost concentration from the crew.

Juancho E. Yrausquin

First on our list air gate located on one of the most beautiful islands in the Caribbean - Saba. Perhaps this is the most dangerous airport in the world, topping the list because of its disastrously short runway. Its length is equal to approximately 396 meters. However, if this fact can still be somehow reconciled, then the picture is complemented by high cliffs surrounding the landing zone, and a nearby steep slope leading directly to the ocean.

Landing here requires absolute concentration from the crew - incorrect calculations can cost the lives of all passengers, since there is a high probability that the ship will fall into the abyss. Most pilots try to avoid this airport. Even professionals do not risk flying here. Takeoff and landing maneuvers are often quite difficult even for small aircraft. Weather conditions on the island are also sometimes unpredictable. Of course, this situation leads to a significant decrease in the flow of tourists who want to relax on this island, even despite the beauty and solitude of this paradise.

Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport

Qamdo Bamda

The Tibetan air complex Qamdo Bamda became the record holder in height. Its location at 4250 meters exceeds sea level. Taking off and landing at such an altitude is very dangerous, so the airport is equipped with a fairly large runway, the duration of which is 3500 meters. But here it is still allowed to serve both large and small aircraft.

Even at sea level, approach speed is 241 km/h. To ensure a safe landing and a complete stop, an average aircraft may need about 1520 meters, but at the altitude at which the Tibetan airfield is located, this distance is at least doubled.

Qamdo Bamda airport

Gustaf III

The next airport is located on caribbean island Saint Barthelemy. For pilots, there are quite tough conditions here:

firstly, the runway here has a very narrow corridor, which threatens the catastrophically close approach of aircraft to the slopes of the elevation of the local landscape during landing;
secondly, the length of the airport runway is only 640 meters, which is suitable only for small aircraft(up to 20 passengers);
thirdly, the strip begins at the road junction, and ends right at the local beach, which is why the planes fly right over the heads of vacationers.

Air Gate Gustaf III

ice runway

You can guess the features of the next runway by its name alone. She made it to our list of the 10 most dangerous airports in the world because of her ice cover, and also due to unpredictable weather conditions reigning in this area. This strip, located in Antarctica, is used primarily for the needs of McMurdo Station. In order to somehow facilitate the task facing the crew, the runway is carefully looked after, turning it into a well-groomed landing area of ice and snow. Landing here is complicated by the fact that the pilot needs to calculate whether the ice will break under the weight of the aircraft, and whether the ship will get stuck in the snow. If suddenly the ice here begins to melt a little, the planes are immediately redirected to other Antarctic air hubs.

Ice Runway

Courchevel

Probably everyone has heard of one of the the very best ski resorts Europe - Courchevel. It is located in the town of the same name. french alps. But this place has become famous not only for its excellent conditions for first-class sports recreation. Popular resort has its own airport, located right in the middle of the mountains.

The Courchevel airfield has become the main location in one of the films of the legendary Bondiana "Tomorrow Never Dies", in which the main character manages to masterfully land the plane on the most dangerous runway.

The aerocomplex was forced to be built on a mountain slope, the slope of which is 18 degrees. But there are other difficulties for pilots:

hump on the territory of the runway;
the length of the local landing zone is about 530 meters.

Needless to say, but air travel to Courchevel turns into a very exciting journey. Quite often, flights are canceled here due to bad weather conditions.

Courchevel Airport - famous and dangerous

barra

The unique beach-airport is located in Barra Island (Scotland). This is a unique aerocomplex, the runway of which is beach. It is noteworthy that at high tide it is completely flooded with water, so flights have to be planned taking into account these natural factors.

The only help for pilots during landings during night tides is the light from the headlights of passing cars.

In order for vacationers to know about the arrival of aircraft, special warning signs. Landing here is breathtaking not only for the crew, but also for the locals.

Barra's unique beach-airport

Toncontin

The Honduran airport is notorious around the world due to several accidents. The airfield began to serve aircraft in 1934. In those days, aircraft were not as powerful, and they did not need much space for acceleration and takeoff. The runway area of the complex has a length of 2133 meters and is located in a valley surrounded by mountains on all sides. It is also worth noting that Toncontin has only one way for aircraft to take off and land.

Toncontin airport

Tenzing Hillary

Tenzing Hillary Airfield is located in eastern Nepal. Mostly climbers are served here: someone dreams of conquering Everest, and someone is simply interested in the region. All guests traveling by plane already understand the danger of flying and landing in these places already on the approach. The region often rages strong wind currents and dominate thick cloud cover. It is quite difficult to perform any maneuvers here. In addition, one end of the local runway ends in a sharp drop.

Tenzing-Hillary Airfield

Madeira

The danger of the Portuguese air hub Madeira lies in the relatively small length of its runways. Rocks and ocean literally squeezed between an air complex. The crew of any aircraft during landing is faced with a very difficult task - first direct the car towards the mountains, and then make flip flop before completing the maneuver.

The runway of the air hub is erected on high pillars, and the structure itself resembles a bridge.

The famous Madeira airport

Gibraltar

The Gibraltar air hub deservedly appeared in our top. It is considered not only one of the most dangerous, but also an extremely busy air complex in the world. The feature of this airfield was the location of its runway - it crosses one of the main streets of the city! Every time an airliner takes off or lands, all urban transport has to be completely shut down.

Many pilots believe that the most dangerous phases of a flight are takeoff and landing. But there are airports in the world where it can be scary even for highly professional pilots to lift an airplane into the air and land it - they are forced to show real miracles of maneuvering! Below is a selection in which the most dangerous airports in the world are marked.

13. Airport on the island of Madeira in Portugal

It was classified as a dangerous air harbor in the world in 1977, after a terrible plane crash that claimed the lives of 131 people. The runway (RWY) was too short, and the pilot began to land 300 m further than the designated point, which caused the plane to crash into a mountain.

Work to increase the runway lasted 8 years, and now it has a length of 2777 m. Most of it is a flyover, located on pillars made of reinforced concrete. There are 180 such pillars, all have a diameter of 3 m, some reach a height of 50 m.

Thanks to this engineering solution, to some extent, it was possible to reduce the danger of landing in the air harbor on the island of Madeira. Although the airfield still continues to be one of the most extreme on the planet, taking the last, 13th place among them.

On the 12th place in this list, Narsarsuaq Airport, standing north of the city Narsak. This is the most important transport interchange in South Greenland and the only international airfield in Greenland.

In addition, Narsarsuaq is also a real historical landmark: it appeared in 1941 as an American-owned military base, Blue West One. Currently, flights are made from this airfield in Greenland, to Copenhagen, and in summer time also to Reykjavik, that is, the path of combat aircraft flown during the Second World War is repeated.

The airfield has one runway, laid out of concrete slabs - its length is 1830 m, and its width is 45 m.

The small length of the runway and the many fjords located very close by are not the whole danger. In this area, increased turbulence, and even when there is no usual strong and gusty wind. Only well-trained and experienced professionals are allowed to fly in this region with such extreme climatic conditions.

Bamda is the highest airfield in the world, it is located among the mountains of Tibet, at an altitude of 4334 m above sea level.

No less shocking than the height is the runway: it is the longest airport in the world civil purpose- 5500 m. Such a length of the runway may seem excessive, but with increased rarefaction of the air, this indicator is extremely important. Due to the increased rarefaction of the air, which is observed high in the mountains, the operation of the engines becomes much more complicated and the thrust force decreases, and this, in turn, does not allow the aircraft to quickly rise into the air. This main reason why Bamda is the 11th most difficult airport in the world to land and take off.

10. Ice runway at the station "Novolazarevskaya" in Antarctica

In 1961, on the coast of Queen Maud Land, about 80 km from the Lazarev Sea, the Soviet Antarctic station "Novolazarevskaya" was established.

In 1979, 12 km south of it, an airfield was built to receive the Il-76. The airfield is one of the largest in Antarctica, it is equipped with concrete parking lots and routes for takeoffs and landings.

It is the 10th most dangerous and scary on our planet. Of particular danger are mainly extreme climatic conditions and not the location of the airport. The real and really terrible problem can be the weight of the aircraft - a huge machine is able to break through the ice or load in soft snow.

9. Princess Juliana Airport on the island of St. Martin in the Netherlands

Another of the most terrible airfields in the world is the international airport Princess Juliana. The end of its runway is located close to Maho Beach, which is popular among vacationers.

Departing for landing, the planes fly low over the beach (10-20 m), almost touching the tourists resting there. Gorgeous photos of one of the most dangerous airports in the world and vivid impressions from the sight of huge colossus flying overhead are guaranteed.

The takeoffs here are just as extreme and difficult: the pilot is forced to make a sharp U-turn in order to avoid a collision with a rock standing on the course.

The shock wave from the engines has such a terrible force that it literally knocks down many curious thrill-seekers watching flights from Maho Beach.

The next, 8th on the list, of the most terrible airports in the world is Toncontin, operating in Honduras, in the capital city of Tegucigalpa.

The airfield was built in a valley surrounded by mountains. The runways are equipped at an altitude of 1005 m above sea level, their length does not exceed 2163 m. Since these routes are very short and are laid close to the mountains, the aircraft have to overcome the mountains at an angle of 45 °. Additional complexity is created by winds, forcing amendments literally at the last moments.

In the spring of 2008, a TACA air carrier plane could not stay on the runway and crashed into cars parked on the embankment, destroying several of them. At the same time, 65 people were injured, 5 died. And this is not the first terrible disaster at the Toncontin airport: in the fall of 1989, a TAN-SAHSA Boeing hit a rock during landing. There were a lot of victims in this disaster - out of 146 people on board, 131 died.

Despite such terrible risk factors, this extreme airfield receives many flights every day.

7. Kansai Airport in Japan

Kansai International Airport is an ensemble of buildings erected directly into the sea, on an artificially constructed island in the Osaka Bay near the city of Osaka. The island is 4 km long and 2.5 km wide.

Unfortunately, even the engineers of Japan failed to calculate at what terrible pace Kansai would sink under water: in 1994 alone, the island sank by 50 cm. Now this speed has significantly decreased, but for this it was necessary to resort to active actions and spend billions of dollars additionally.

Kansai, this real masterpiece of engineering, ranks 7th among the most dangerous air harbors in the world.

Gustaf III Airport, also known as Saint Barthelemy, is located in the waters caribbean, on the island of St. Barthélemy.

The runway has a length of only 650 m, in addition, it is built in an incredibly narrow corridor, bounded on the sides by rocks. During landing, aircraft approach extremely close to the mountain slopes, because of which there is a threat of falling directly into the ocean.

Gustaf III is a well-deserved 6th place among airports with terrible landing conditions.

5. Courchevel Airport in France

The next of the airports, recognized throughout the world as scary and dangerous, is Courchevel, which serves the French resort of the same name.

The airport is located among the mountains, at an altitude of 2000 m above sea level. This air harbor has an extremely short runway - its length is 525 m, and the slope is 18.5 °.

The functionality of the airport is also limited by the technical conditions due to the lack of a landing approach using navigation instruments. This leads to the fact that landing during fogs or low clouds is completely impossible here.

By the way, extreme Courchevel became famous all over the world thanks to the film "Tomorrow Never Dies". There is an episode in the picture when James Bond lands the plane on the dangerous and even scary runway of this small airport in France.

4. Tenzing and Hillary Airport in Nepal

In eastern Nepal, there is a dangerous and extreme airport, which occupies the 4th position in the ranking - this is the airport named after Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, who gained world fame as the first conquerors of Everest. Until 2008, the airfield was known as Lukla Airport.

The runway, which is only 527 m long, has a slope of 12° - because of this, its ends have a 60 m difference in height. The difficult terrain has led to the fact that one end of the runway is used for landings, located on the edge of a cliff with a depth of 700 m, and for take-offs - the other, located at the foot of the ridge 4000 m high.

An additional and very terrible danger here is created by thick clouds and strong winds.

The title of “the most extreme airport in the world” this air port deserved for one more reason: takeoffs and landings are carried out only by VFR, since only a radio station is used here from all known navigation systems.

The Matekane airstrip is an airport in the Kingdom of Lesotho. In principle, this is not an airport at all in the sense familiar to people all over the world: on a mountain plateau stretched runway 400 m long, ending with a cliff 600 m deep.

It is rare that a flying machine can accelerate and rise in height before this streak ends. During the development of the project, the engineers assumed that in order to gain the required height during takeoff, the aircraft would go into free fall.

In 2009, this extreme airport was banned from domestic and international air travel. But for private flights small aviation this dangerous and extreme airport continues to be used today.

Its place among the world's airports with the most terrible conditions for flights is 3.

2. Juancho-Irauskin Airport on the island of Saba in the Netherlands

Juancho-Irauskin, designed for international flights, is the most dangerous airport in the world near the sea and the 2nd in the ranking of the 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 Airways

This airfield is equipped with the shortest runway in the world (about 400 m), surrounded by sheer cliffs and the sea. Adds more complexity strong wind, which also constantly changes its direction.

Flights are carried out only by the crews of the local airline Windward Islands Airways, who have undergone special training. Juancho-Irauskin is closed for private flights, because the slightest mistake during takeoff or landing will lead to dire consequences!

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1. 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 mountain peaks The Himalayas are 5 km high.

It was the location that made this Harbour Air recognized as the most extreme in the world for making landings, because the crew has to make incredible turns among the mountains. Takeoff is no less scary and dangerous: the plane flies in a spiral right above the airport, gradually gaining altitude and rising over the Himalayas. Such tricks are possible only during the day and only under good weather conditions.

Around the world, only a few pilots (8 to 25 professionals according to various sources) are licensed and authorized to perform such fast and extreme maneuvers in dangerous conditions.

Paro Airport in Bhutan holds the position of leader in the list of "the most dangerous airports in the world."

And what does landing at the most terrible airports in the world look like through the eyes of a pilot? Watch the video if you are not afraid to shake the nervous system.