Transportation

The World’s Most Dangerous Airport—Don’t Read If You’re A Nervous Flyer


It may be scary enough for nervous flyers landing at an airport in general. Strange sounds that the aircraft makes coupled with potentially inclement weather conditions that may not cause concern the frequent flyers or pilots, but could be enough to scare many flyers.

Imagine then, when the airport itself has a long list of challenges and potential dangers to add to the variables of the aircraft and pilots.

Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Nepal, also known as Lukla Airport has long been considered one of the most challenging and dangerous airports to land in the world.

High altitude, rapidly changing weather conditions in the Himalayan mountains, an uneven runway surface and a vertical drop off are just some of the dangers facing one of the highest airports in the world.

Lukla airport sits at nearly 9,500 feet above sea level and when you couple that with the fact that the runway length is only 1,729 feet, then you have a recipe for potentially frightful takeoffs and landings. To put that into perspective, London Heathrow’s shorter Southerly runway is a staggering 11,800 feet long.

This means that only light aircraft can land at Lukla, and considering on a normal day both landings and takeoffs occur downhill, into what appears to be a mountain drop-off abyss beyond, this can make for a terrifying ordeal for nervous flyers.

Lukla’s setting amongst the Himalayan mountains also makes this one of the most stunning airports in the world. This is Nepal’s busiest domestic airport with many people attempting to reach Kathmandu flying into Lukla. 

With no navigation aids or night fights from the Himalayan airport, pilots have to be specially trained to fly into or out of Lukla. With a wall on the other side of the runway that isn’t a steep drop-off and low-pressure air at altitude, not to mention intricate approaches through the mountains, there is absolutely no room for pilot error.

Because of these factors, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal ensures that pilots must have at least one year of experience flying in Nepal, coupled with at least 10 flights into Lukla with an instructor certified for short-takeoff and landing flights, as well as having completed a minimum of 100 such flights.

Last year a Summit Air L-410 was the last aircraft you be involved in an accident at Lukla airport, veering off the runway destroying a helicopter and leading to three fatalities.

In 2017 a Summit Air freight flight also led to two fatalities as it clipped a tree on its final approach during poor visibility and crash-landed at the end of the runway.

The worst fatality at the airport recently was a Yeti Airlines DHC-6 Twin Otter 300 that crashed on final approach in inclement weather killing 18 passengers onboard during the inclement fire.



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