Paro Airport Bhutan
Posted on 04/14/2008 6:51:38 AM PDT by yankeedame
And now for the top ten scariest runways in the world...
#1 of 10
Paro Airport Bhutan
Who Flies There: Druk Air, the national carrier.
Why It’s Harrowing: Tucked into a tightly cropped valley and surrounded by 16,000-foot-high serrated Himalayan peaks, this is arguably the world’s most forbidding airport to fly into. It requires specially trained pilots to maneuver into this stomach-dropping aerie by employing visual flying rules and then approaching and landing through a narrow channel of vertiginous tree-covered hillsides
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#2 of 10
Princess Juliana International Airport St. Maarten
Who Flies There: All major U.S. airlines, as well as Paris-based charter carrier Corsairfly, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, and a handful of regional operators.
Why It’s Harrowing: The length of the runway—just 7,152 feet—is perfectly fine for small or medium-size jets, but as the second-busiest airport in the Eastern Caribbean, it regularly welcomes so-called heavies—long-haul wide-body jetliners like Boeing 747’s and Airbus A340’s—from Europe, which fly in improbably low over Maho Beach and skim just over the perimeter fence
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#3 of 10
Reagan National Airport Washington, D.C.
Who Flies There: All major U.S. airlines.
Why It’s Harrowing: Flying around Washington, D.C., is fraught with peril—just ask the pilot of a small aircraft that drifted into restricted airspace in March 2008, causing Congress to be evacuated and military planes to be scrambled. Located smack in the center of two overlapping air-exclusion zones, Reagan National requires pilots flying the so-called River Visual into the airport to follow the Potomac while steering clear of sensitive sites such as the Pentagon and CIA headquarters before making a steep turn and landing on this natural peninsula. Taking off, too, is a white-knuckle event in which pilots are required to climb quickly and execute a steep left bank to avoid flying over the White House.
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#4 of 10
Gibraltar Airport Gibraltar
Who Flies There: Air Malta, British Airways, EasyJet, Iberia Airlines, and Monarch Airlines.
Why It’s Harrowing: Pinched in by the Mediterranean on its eastern flank and the Bay of Algeciras on its western side, the airport’s truncated runway stretches just 6,000 feet and requires pinpoint precision. And upon hitting the tarmac, pilots must quickly and fully engage the auto-breaks. Yet as nerve-racking as the landing can be, it’s never guaranteed. Because of Gibraltar’s unique topography, the British colony endures unusual localized weather patterns that cause flights to be diverted to nearby Tangiers, Faro, and Malaga.
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#5 of 10
Matekane Air Strip Lesotho
Who Flies There: Charities delivering aid, and the occasional bush pilot.
Why It’s Harrowing: Because of the diminutive 1,312-foot-long runway perched at the edge of a couloir at 7,550 feet, becoming airborne at the end of the tarmac is virtually impossible. Instead, you drop down the face of a 2,000-foot cliff until you start flying. Says bush pilot Tom Claytor, "The rule in the mountains is that it is better to take off downwind and downhill than into wind and uphill, because in Lesotho, the hills will usually out-climb you. It's a little bit hard to do the first time."
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#6 of 10
Barra Airport Barra, Scotland
Who Flies There: British Airways and Flybe.
Why It’s Harrowing: Have you ever landed on a beach? The airport on the tiny Outer Hebridean Island of Barra is actually a wide shallow bay onto which scheduled planes land, making it a curiosity in the world of aviation. Admittedly, the roughness of the landings is determined by how the tide goes out to sea. Locals, who are avid cockle pickers, steer clear of the vast swath of hardened sand when the wind sock is up—a sign that specially rigged Twin Otter propeller aircraft are incoming.
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#7 of 10
Toncontín Airport Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Who Flies There: American Airlines, Continental, Copa Airlines, TACA, Islena Airlines, and Aerolineas Sosa.
Why It’s Harrowing: Having negotiated the rough-hewn mountainous terrain, pilots must execute a dramatic 45-degree, last-minute bank to the left just minutes prior to touching down in a bowl-shaped valley on a runway just 6,112 feet in length. The airport, at an altitude of 3,294 feet, can accommodate aircraft no larger than Boeing 757’s.
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#8 of 10
John F. Kennedy International Airport New York
Who Flies There: All major U.S., European, and Asian airlines.
Why It’s Harrowing: Parkway Visual—a.k.a. the Canarsie Approach—is the especially daunting flyway here, since pilots have to avoid interfering with flights into New York’s two other close-by airports, LaGuardia and Newark. Set up in 1964 as a noise-abatement measure to pacify angry residents, this approach forces pilots to have a reported 1,500-foot ceiling and a five-mile visibility for their circular approach before lining up with runway 13L, with the threatening waters of Jamaica Bay beckoning at the runway’s end.
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#9 of 10
Madeira Airport Funchal
Who Flies There: Most scheduled (and many charter) European carriers.
Why It’s Harrowing: Wedged in by mountains and the Atlantic, Madeira Airport requires a clockwise approach for which pilots are specially trained. Despite a unique elevated extension that was completed back in 2000 and now expands the runway length to what should be a comfortable 9,000 feet, the approach to Runway 05 remains a hair-raising affair that pilots absolutely dread. They must first point their aircraft at the mountains and, at the last minute, bank right to align with the fast-approaching runway.
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#10 of 10
Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport Saba, Netherlands Antilles
Who Flies There: Windward Islands Airways (Winair).
Why It’s Harrowing: Perched on a precipitous gale-battered peninsula on the island’s northeastern corner, the airport requires pilots to tackle blustery trade winds, occasional spindrift, and their own uneasy constitutions as they maneuver in for a perfect landing (there’s no margin for error) on a runway that’s just 1,300 feet long. "Shorting this means ending up in the cliffs," says one pilot matter-of-factly, "while overshooting it means an uncomfortable go-around. Either way, you’ll want to bring the Dramamine."
Another harrowing field is Baguio Airport, Luzon Island of the Philippines. Located in the center of a major mountain caldera. The surrounding valley is formed like a bowl with a ragged 8,000 foot rim usually fringed with cummulus clouds. The 4,500’ runway is on high ground with clifts at each end with a low mid-field. The runway is not flat.
During rainy season, this field was especially fun and similar to FCLPs (field carrier landing practices).
When my Dad was alive we used to go to South Boston (which was his childhood home) and watch the planes approach Logan...which was only a few hundred yards from where we situated ourselves.It was cool to see the 747's pass so close over us that you could almost reach up and grab the landing gear.
Oddly enough, I’ve landed at 4 of these - Reagan, JFK, St. Maarten and Honduras. The US Air Force has some runways that are much scarier. Auxiliary Field #3 at Eglin AFB, FL and the main runway at Anderson AFB, GU come to mind immediately.
You are correct on Kai Tak.. We flew there is C-1As from Cubi Point. There was a point of no return in 1975 where after if unable to land at Kai Tak we had to ditch. China was a problem then. The IFR approach to Kai Tak was a large square pattern going VFR at checkerboard signaling the field was a hard-right turn away. Remember lookin up into Hong Kong apartments.
I remember flying out of Shreveport back in the 70’s. The plane pulled onto the runway, then one of the little tractors came out and backed us to the very end of the runway, the tail was hanging out over the grass. The pilot went to full throttle while holding the brakes. When he had enough power he released the brakes and we were off. Kind of like a 727 taking off from a carrier. I felt like I knew what the Doolittle boys went through coming off the Hornet.
ping
Wow!
Been to Williamson once as PIC.
A nearby GA airport in KY sits in a valley so narrow that it is a one-way airport. Only listened to the unicom chatter while passing nearby. Seemed like the “pattern” was away from the runway, above the hills. Maybe a Freeper can comment on the local customs there.
Here’s the most harrowing airport I ever landed at.
Yeager Airport, renamed in 1985 to honor Brigadier General Charles “Chuck” Yeager, is located outside of Charleston, W. Va. along the Elk River. Given the area’s mountainous terrain, 9,000,000 cubic yards of earth and rock from over 360 mountain acres had to be cleared and graded to make way for the airport when it was constructed in the 1940s.
I was going in on a regional airline back in the 60s. Looking out the window, I saw we were headed directly head-on in to a cliff. At the last moment, the plane popped up (probably due to an updraft along the cliff face) and landed on the end of the runway. I took a train out of there.
I have flown in to the two in this country and have a friend who has flown into Bhutan. When he got home he told us it was pretty scary landing there.
It has probably changed by now, but I remember 40 years ago being pretty impressed with the mountains surrounding the Rio de Janeiro airport. It was pretty steep coming and going.
Another diverting factoid about the Gibraltar strip: The only road from Spain into Gibraltar crosses it in the middle.
Great thread.
San Diego’s can be cute, too.
ping
I was wondering when someone would mention the old Hong Kong airport. Flying in and out now is gravy.
Too bad Wake Island is no longer active. Blow the approach or takeoff and you are swimming. Had to be heavily loaded on takeoff to make the next landfall: great fun to see the runway stop and water appear just as you lift off.............
I remember that!
IIRC you're coming in parallel to a craggy mountain range called 'The Seven Sisters.
Caracas ,Venezuela airport used to be built right on the Caribbean Sea. The runway dumped into the sea.
I recall coming in for a landing and all I saw was water until the end of the runway which looked like a boat ramp.
Jackson Co., NC. airport is pretty neat.
Top of a mountain loped off. A drop at both ends.
landing lights on...
It pales in comparison to Fane, PNG...
Landing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oB73Z767S8
Takeoff
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhp0jbTpUGM
Shiver....
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