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."
I’m surprised Hong Kong or Catalina Island didn’t make the list.
Fascinating. The skills of pilots are incredible, not only on such challenging air strips but also with Mother Nature’s crosswinds... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tt4mW_we1c Bravo to each and every one of them.
No Midway or Migs?(yes it is gone but still)
It’s no longer in use, but when it was, that was a heck of a landing...and a great experience from the ground too. The new HK airport isn’t nearly as much fun.
Aviation ping
Catalina Airport covers 25 acres and has one asphalt runway (4/22) measuring 3,000 x 60 feet (914 x 18 m). Surface elevation of the runway is 1602 feet (488 m) above sea level.[1] The runway is known for being pitched up in the middle, so that on short approach it appears much shorter. Pavement condition varies widely; after recent maintenance it is good, but following the rainy season there are often potholes, soft spots, and chunks of loose asphalt on the runway. Terrain falls off steeply at both ends of the runway. Due to turbulence and downdrafts at the approach ends, lack of normal visual references on final approach, and the upslope of the first 1/3 of Runway 22 (which creates the illusion of being too high on final approach) the airport can be hazardous for inexperienced pilots. Aircraft at opposite ends of the runway cannot see each other. Contact with Unicom is required to obtain permission for landing.
Video of what it is like landing there
I've experienced landing here, and like the video shows, it looks like you making a carrier landing.
A week later the same flight blew all its tires on landing and closed the airport for a few hours.
“in the Hudson “ should be “in the East River”. I must have been half a sleep when I typed the earlier one.
I’ve landed in Teguc many times...it is rough, but Reagan can be just as bad it landing to the south.
I've flown into Gibraltar on Monarch ... the boat I was connecting up with for a trans-Atlantic was docked in the marina to the left of the runway. We had a great view of aircraft arriving and departing. The road you mentioned has a gate not unlike a R/R crossing ... stopping vehicular traffic whenever a flight arrived or departed.
I guess he’s never flown into Love Field in Dallas!
hehehe! :^D
No matter what or where, there’s a Freeper who’s been there and done that.
< }B^)
The worst landing I ever experienced while in the USAF was at Anderson, AFB also. I still have nightmares on occasion. Yikes!
![](http://www.travelandleisure.com/images/slideshows/reagan-national-airport-200804-ss2.jpg")
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.
Neal, it is Washington, what else would you expect?
My worst landing was in a UH-1 in Honduras. Nobody walked away, but nobody died either.
Bet that landing ruined your day. I got knocked around a bit once on a “bounce” landing on a C-130. Nothing compare to your UH-1 landing however. By the way, thank you for your service to our country. Does anyone ever say that enough?
Regards,
AR
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