Kathmandu, April 18: Lukla airport at Mount Everest base camp is the world’s most dangerous airport with a runway of only 1500 ft. Enjoy the video, very cramped & very busy air ops in a clear weather window.
The Lukla airport is surrounded on all sides by steep, mountainous terrain. The short runway is perched on little more than a mountain shelf. At one end there’s a wall and at the other a steep drop into the valley below.
More than 300 people have died attempting to reach the summit of Mount Everest, with countless more injured. Yet the dangers begin well before trekkers even reach base camp. The most common way hikers reach the area is to fly to the tiny Himalayan settlement of Lukla, 9,383 feet above sea level.
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The alternatives all involve several days of trekking, and so multiple flights carry hikers between Kathmandu and Lukla every day. Although the flight time is just 25-30 minutes, the two airports are as different as night and day.
Airports can be challenging to pilots for many reasons, as seen on this list of dangerous airports in Europe. Sometimes it’s the short runway as on many Greek islands. Places like Gibraltar suffer from regular wind shear, while mountainous terrain surrounding airports like Innsbruck creates obvious risks. Airports at high-altitude present dangers due to the effect that low air pressure has on the handling of an airplane.
