World's top 10 scariest airports

[Justin L]

I've only been to JFK out of the list below, but can anyone share their experience regarding the others?

http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-...0203-7wix.html

World's top 10 scariest airports
February 5, 2009

Nervous fliers, stop reading! Travel + Leisure has come up with a list of the world's scariest runways that can make even the most relaxed travellers grip their armrest.

1. Paro Airport, Bhutan

Tucked into a tightly cropped valley and surrounded by 4900-metre-high Himalayan peaks, Bhutan's only airport is forbidding to fly into. It requires specially trained pilots to maneuver and land through a channel of tree-covered hillsides.

2. Princess Juliana International Airport, St. Maarten

The length of the runway is just 2180 metres which is fine for small or medium-size jets, but as the second-busiest airport in the Eastern Caribbean, it regularly welcomes wide-body jetliners like Boeing 747s and Airbus A340s which fly in low over Maho Beach and skim just over the perimeter fence.

3. Reagan National Airport, Washington, DC

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. On taking off, pilots need to climb quickly and execute a steep left bank to avoid flying over the White House.

4. Gibraltar Airport, Gibraltar

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 1828 metres and requires pinpoint precision.

5. Matekane Air Strip, Lesotho

The 399-metre-long runway is perched at the edge of a couloir at 2300 metres. You drop down the face of a 609-metre 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."

6. Barra Airport, Barra, Scotland

The airport on the tiny Outer Hebridean Island of Barra is actually a wide shallow bay onto which scheduled planes land with the roughness of landings determined by how the tide went out.

7. Toncontin Airport, Tegucigalpa, Honduras

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 1862 metres in length. The airport, at an altitude of 1000 metres, can accommodate aircraft no larger than Boeing 757's.

8. John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York

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, this approach forces pilots to have a reported 457-metre ceiling and a eight-kilometre visibility before lining up with runway 13L and the waters of Jamaica Bay.

9. Madeira Airport, Funchal, Madeira

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 2743 metres, the approach to Runway 05 remains hair-raising. Pilots must first point their aircraft at the mountains and, at the last minute, bank right to the runway.

10. Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport, Saba, Netherlands Antilles

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 on a runway that's just 396 metres long.

Reuters

[Matt_L]

3. Reagan National Airport, Washington, DC

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. On taking off, pilots need to climb quickly and execute a steep left bank to avoid flying over the White House.

I went to Reagan National in 2004/5 on a Delta Shuttle 737-200 from La Guardia. On final approach, it was rocky to say the least- the approach is called the River Visual into runway 19.

See below the procedure and you will see it is truly a visual approach!!

http://204.108.4.16/d-tpp/0901/00443RIVER_VIS19.PDF


Im suprised Quito Airport, Ecuador or Lukla Airport just near Mt Everest in Nepal didnt make the list.

[NickN]

Wow that river approach looks awesome, very unusual! I am gonna give that a try in FSX.

Quito approach is one of the default missions in FSX and very challenging in a 744F.

[Adrian B]

wasnt there a new airport in Chione or Tibet that had a very dangerous aproach flying between mountians at a faily high altitiude?

[Ryan N]

Kai Tak in HKG would be on the list if it was still operational.

[Jethro H]

I assume this is the scareist "commerical" airports.

Should try looking up Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Lukla, Nepal about 40 miles from Mount Everest Base Camp. It is tar! but no actually level. There is a danger taking out the fence on just before the threshold.

Also there is some you-tube stuff on Alberto Carnevali Airport in Merida, Venezuela, which is in between mountains.

As for small stuff, I didn't know our Defence Force gravel trucks were helicopters until I saw some 30 degree angle runways in PNG that they touch and stopped on!

[Bill S]

Originally Posted by Jethro H

I assume this is the scareist "commerical" airports.

Should try looking up Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Lukla, Nepal about 40 miles from Mount Everest Base Camp. It is tar! but no actually level. There is a danger taking out the fence on just before the threshold.

Also there is some you-tube stuff on Alberto Carnevali Airport in Merida, Venezuela, which is in between mountains.

As for small stuff, I didn't know our Defence Force gravel trucks were helicopters until I saw some 30 degree angle runways in PNG that they touch and stopped on!

Yes PNG has some rippers!
Here's Fane in the central highlands.



It's got about a 16° slope, is ~450 metres long and has a big drop on the bottom end.
Kamulai is worse though.

[Mick F]

Bill did you fly in PNG during your career?

Mick

[Bill S]

Originally Posted by Mick F

Bill did you fly in PNG during your career?

Mick

Yep, I flew a Citation 2 around there for a while - VH-TFQ.



That's the little jet at Guasopa.




And back in about 1994 when the volcano at Rabaul went up. We were on an extended downwind in that photo, for the other local airport where people where being evacuated.

[Bernie P]

Here is a slideshow of the Scariest Airports...

Enjoy!