16 most dangerous airports in the world
Princess Juliana International Airport, St. Maarten
The large wide-bodied planes carrying tourists to St. Maarten require more than 2,400 metres of runway to land safely. What makes the picturesque Princess Juliana Airport dangerous isn’t the sunbathers below on the beach but the technically-too-short 2,164 metre runway originally built for the smaller planes that once frequented the island before the tourism boom arrived. But fear not, fruity drinks with umbrellas are waiting to relax your nerves once you touch down!
Lukla Airport, Nepal
If you are flying into Lukla, you are likely heading to climb Mount Everest. Danger may be your middle name but this airport is treacherous not only because of the extremely short runway but because of its height, location between mountains, and, oh yeah, the lack of power and air traffic controllers. Tackling Everest might be the least scary of all!
Toncontin Airport, Honduras
Another dangerous high altitude airport makes the list because, according to Interesting Engineering, in order for planes to prepare for the descent into Toncontin Airport, “they must make a quick 45-degree bank turn to reach the runway in a valley then rapidly drop altitude, being careful not to scrape the terrain directly underneath.”
Paro Airport, Bhutan
How dangerous is the landing at this rather unassuming airport with the microscopic 1980-metre runway tucked in among 5,480-metre peaks of the Himalayan Mountains? Only eight (!!!) pilots in total are qualified to make the landing here at Paro Airport!
Narsarsuaq Airport, Greenland
Nowhere else on earth does a pilot have to contend with the mix of factors that exist at this dangerous airport. Short runways covered in ice, extremely cold temperatures, severe winds, and low visibility due to not only heavy snow but also ash clouds from nearby active volcanoes make landing at Narsarsuaq Airport in Greenland not for the faint of heart.
Madeira Airport, Portugal
According to Jalopnik, “only 20 captains with British Airways are qualified to operate into Madeira Airport (FNC), in which they use waypoints like a banana shed [to guide them in].” Additionally, there is “no instrument landing system (ILS) so pilots must navigate the challenging terrain manually. The destination is particularly treacherous due to strong and highly variable Atlantic winds, mountains on one side and the ocean on the other.”
And don’t forget that the runway was extended from 1613 metres to 2780 metres by building it out into the ocean on 180 concrete pillars – it is now like a runway on stilts! The ambitious project won the 2004 Outstanding Structure Award which is considered the Oscars of structural engineering.
Courchevel Airport, France
Located in the French Alps, near the Italian border, sits this dangerous airport serving ski resorts and their daredevil guests. What makes the Courchevel Airport so dangerous is the altitude of course (1980 metres60), but also the tiny 536-metre runway and its 18.5 percent gradient slope making it necessary for the small planes landing here to touch down at inclined angles just to slow down. The lack of lighting and no approach system also help to place this airport anywhere on the scale from treacherous to simply impossible to use in adverse weather.
Gibraltar Airport, Gibraltar
Wow Travel says that the Gibraltar Airport has but one runway and that that dangerous runway cuts right through the main street of the city! “Vehicles are made to stop every time an aircraft lands or takes off. Somehow there has never been a major accident.”
Gisborne Airport, New Zealand
While road traffic must come to a standstill for airplanes in Gibraltar, landings at Gisborne Airport on the eastern edge of New Zealand’s North Island must be coordinated with the national rail service which runs the Palmerston North–Gisborne Line directly across the one main paved and three grass runways.
MCAS Futenma, Okinawa Japan
“The situation of MCAS Futenma,” according to The Diplomat “is in direct violation of the safety standards set down for military airfields by the U.S. Department of the Navy, in accordance with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations.” The dangerous U.S. Marine Corps Air Station runway sits smack dab in the middle of a crowded city, with schools, hospitals, businesses, and more than 3,000 residents in what is supposed to be a “clear zone.”
Bert Mooney Airport, Butte Montana
Sure it has a lovely new $10.5 million dollar terminal, but this picturesque airport between Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks still ranks as a dangerous one thanks to a lack of control tower and the need for pilots to navigate numerous obstructions while landing.
Aspen/Pitkin County Airport, Colorado, USA
Any airport that requires special pilot training easily makes a list of the most dangerous airports in the world. Aspen’s airport, according to the Telegraph, fits the bill thanks to its steep approach and mountains surrounding the runway which force those specially trained pilots to land and take off in opposite directions while using the single runway.
Telluride Regional Airport, Colorado
Not surprisingly, another Colorado Rocky Mountain airport is ranked as one of the most dangerous. Telluride’s Regional Airport sits over 9,000 feet above sea level, making it the highest commercial airport in North America. There are huge cliffs at both ends of the airport’s single runway, and strong mountain winds in the cold of winter, all serving to make landing an airplane in Telluride a dangerous proposition for even experienced pilots.
Saba Airport, Dutch Caribbean
You might think that King Kong is dangerous but his “native island” (Saba provided the silhouette for Skull Island in the original King Kong film) in the Dutch Caribbean (a 15-minute flight from St. Maarten) has an airport that incites more fear than the famous gorilla ever could. Sitting precariously on the edge of a cliff, this tiny and narrow 396-metre runway is scary enough to have even the most seasoned traveller clutching the armrest during a landing on this gem of a remote Caribbean island known for stellar SCUBA diving.
Congonhas Airport, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Per a Forbes report, this regional airport serving the 12 million people of Sao Paulo is “located in a heavily built-up part of the huge city and gives you the impression that you are scraping the tops of high rise buildings as you land.” In addition to the busy metropolis rising up from the ground to make this airport one of the world’s most dangerous, “the runways are considered the most slippery in the world and have resulted in a large number of fatal crashes.”
Svalbard Airport, Norway
Built upon a layer of permafrost, Svalbard is the northernmost airport in the world with scheduled public flights. Due to the lack of runway lights, flights are only permitted during daylight, which is fine when there are 24-hours of it during summer days but not when the opposite reality takes hold in winter.
Because this dangerous airport was deemed to be not in line with international standards, Svalbard’s Longyearbyen Airport lost its international designation in 2017 meaning the only way to reach this remote Arctic Circle airport, and to experience the frequent polar bear sightings on the archipelago, is from Tromsø or Bergen on mainland Norway.
Image credits: Getty Images
This article originally appeared on Reader's Digest.