There can be a thin line between majestic and scary.
Take, for instance, Princess Juliana International Airport in St. Martin. It looks like you can almost reach up and touch the airplane from the beach. Maybe that’s because all the runway needs is a bottle of sunscreen to become part of the beach.
Beautiful? Yes. Scary? Yes. And difficult for pilots to navigate.
If there’s a thin line between majestic and scary, there’s a thinner line between the runway and the water here. Here are a few more difficult runways in no particular order.
Princess Juliana International Airport, St. Martin: It borders on the incredible and the surreal. The bottom line is there’s little room for error.
Lukla Airport, Nepal: Forget about the fact that the runway of the main airport is nestled within Mount Everest. There are times when there is no electric power at the facility, which can make landings harrowing and sometimes primitive.
Courchevel Airport, France: You would think that a refined place such as France would not be on this list, but think again. Located in the French Alps, this is one of the most dangerous airports in the world.
Matekane Air Strip, Lesotho: One of the most remote airports in the world, its runway barely measures a half-mile long. And that’s being generous.
Paro Airport, Bhutan: This tiny Southeast Asia nation has received plenty of acclaim lately for trying to boost its youth sports program. Maybe officials should work on an airport in which only a limited number of pilots have the qualifications to land here.
Simon Benjamin, Alamy: It’s in the Caribbean, and the wind shear can sometimes be dangerous.
Reagan National Airport, Washington D.C.: And you thought the United States was immune from a list like this? A sharp turn near the Potomac River and intermittent ‘no fly zones’ make this challenging.
Narsarsuaq Airport, Greenland: The fjords that surround the airport can be tricky and the runway is less than a mile long.
Gibraltar International Airport, Gibraltar: Main Street intersects with the airport and has to be closed when a plane lands. What else do you need to know?
Any Airport: Flying is the safest mode of transportation. That said, they say that take-off and landing are when flights are most susceptible. That makes any runway and airport a possible danger zone.
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