Top 10 dangerous Airports in the World

Airline travel is one of the safest forms of public transportation but these airports still scare people.

👉In terms of traveling long distances, flying on an airplane is one of the fastest, safest, and easiest ways to get to your destination. Unfortunately, not every runway has long, flat stretches.

👉This means that pilots have to be particularly skilled to land on a runway carved on a mountain or one that appears in a narrow valley. Bearing that in mind, here are 10 of the scariest or most difficult airports in the world to land at.

1. Saba Airport 

Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport (IATA: SAB, ICAO: TNCS) is an airport on the Dutch Caribbean island of Saba. It is widely acknowledged as the smallest airport in the world, with a very short runway one of the Top 10 dangerous Airports in the World.

Its runway is a pitiful 1300 feet (400 meters) long one, making it one of the shortest commercial airports in the world. This tiny runway length means only the very best pilots have what it takes to safely land and take off from it. 

2. Congonhas Airport 

Congonhas International Airport in São Paulo, Brazil, is not only scary, it is also one of the world's most dangerous airports. Another airport with a short runway, it is also located in a heavily-built-up portion of the enormous city

In fact, over the years there have been some very serious accidents at the airport. One notable example occurred in 2007 when TAM Airlines Airbus A320 overran runway 35L during moderate rain. The plane crashed into a nearby warehouse, killing all 187 people on board and 12 civilians on the ground.

3.Telluride Regional Airport

Telluride Regional Airport is located in southwest Colorado and is widely considered one of the scariest in the world. Around 5 miles (8 km) west of the town of Telluride, it is one of the highest airports by elevation in America, at 9,070 feet (2.76 km).

Located on a small plateau, it features 1,000-foot (300 mt) sheer cliffs at both ends of the runway, and pilots need to overcome strong vertical turbulence from the mountain winds during winter months. Not only that, but each end of the runway is actually slightly higher than the middle, creating a dip, although this was reduced during a 2009 renovation

4. Svalbard Airport

Svalbard airport not only seems scary, but it is also an engineering marvel in its own right. Located in Norway's Arctic archipelago, the 8,000-foot (2438 mt) runway is built directly on ice. Culverts under the runways allow water to run from the mountain. one of the Top 10 dangerous Airports in the World.

For these reasons, one of Norway's worst air accidents occurred at this airport in 1996. A Russian flight bound for Longyearbyen crashed into a mountain after being about 3.2 km (2 miles) off its approach centerline, killing all 141 passengers on board. 

5. Wellington International Airport

Located in New Zealand, Wellington International Airport is yet another of the world's most difficult airports to land at. Featuring a 6,350 feet (1935 meters) long runway, both ends appear to start and end in water. 

Other than that, in the past, the airport had been recognized as having one of the best terminals in the world. Despite this, it is constantly ranked among the scariest places to land anywhere in the world. 

6. Gisborne Airport 

Another entry from New Zealand, Gisborne Airport is also considered to be one of the world's most difficult airports. Located on the outskirts of Gisborne, this airport actually has a railway intersecting its runway at one point. 

It has three grass runways and one main runway, landings require accurate coordination with approaching trains. For this reason, it is not uncommon for either planes or trains to be delayed to allow the other to safely pass. 

7. Lukla Airport

The Lukla Airport, technically Tenzing–Hillary Airport, in Nepal serves as the main airport for those visiting Mt. Everest. Part of what makes this airport so difficult to land on is the way it is nestled in between mountains, and the incredibly short length of the runway.

 

In fact, the airport is quite small. The airport sometimes loses electric power, cutting off communication with the controllers. This makes landings risky even in perfect conditions.

8. Courchevel International Airport

Courchevel airport went viral a few years ago, as it has one of the shortest runways of any airport in the world, at 1,722 feet (525 meters). Not only this, but the paved runway has a downward slope of 18.5% which makes taking off even more difficult.

To add to the already difficult landing, the runway is built right into the Alps, where pilots have to fly through a narrow valley even to prepare for descent. Only specially-certified pilots are allowed to land here. The airport is not equipped with lights or instrumentation aids, so in bad weather landing is impossible.

9. Toncontin Airport

They must make a rapid 45-degree bank turn to reach the runway in a valley, an approach likened to landing on an aircraft carrier. After this bank, planes must rapidly drop in altitude, being careful not to scrape the terrain directly underneath. Wind gusts and poor weather also hamper the approach. 

 10. Princess Juliana International Airport

The runway is only around 1.36 miles (2.2 km) long, which is very short considering many of the large aircrafts that land here generally require more than 2,500 meters to ensure a safe landing. Princess Juliana was initially built for smaller planes, but the booming tourist industry has brought A340s and 747s into the regular traffic rotation.

Like some other runways in the Caribbean Sea, Princess Juliana Airport, located in Saint Maarten, is perhaps the most famous on the list. This is partly because of the public beach situated just before the runway.