5 Most Deadliest Airports In The World

In terms of traveling long distances, flying on an airplane is the fastest and easiest way to get to your destination. The only problem is that flat stretches of runway aren't always available in certain places. This means that pilots have to be particularly skilled to land on a runway that juts out from a mountain or one that appears in a narrow valley. Here are 5 of the most dangerous airports in the world to land at.

* Narsarsuaq Airport, Greenland

Similar to Antartica, the airports in cold Greenland are constantly covered in ice. At only 1,800 meters and canvassed in slick ice, this runway is the most difficult in the world. The weather is constantly stormy creating intense turbulence and low visibility on approach. Shear winds affect planes which, coupled with the icy runway, can direct them off course. The nearby active volcano also commonly erupts sending ash into the clouds which can stall and destroy engines.

* Madeira Airport

Madeira Airport is one of the few in the world where engineers build a runway platform in order to expand. The landing strip sits between steep cliffs and the shores of the ocean. When an expansion project was planned, designers saw that the only option was to build a series of platforms on an artificial island extending from the current runway. Over 180 columns hold the runway up which have to withstand serious shock loading during landings.

* McMurdo Air Station, Antarctica

Not many people travel to Antartica, which means that the airport infrastructure there is significantly lacking. This runway isn't particularly short, but it is made of slick ice which can cause planes to run askew if the landing isn't perfect. Temperatures here are below freezing on average the entire year. In 1970 there as a bad crash of a C-121 that still sits off to the side buried in snow. Many months out of the year it is dark continuously, and due to the lack of lights, pilots are trained to land using night vision goggles.

* Paro Airport in Bhutan, Himalayan Mountains

Continuously ranked as one of the most dangerous airports in the world, only 8 pilots are qualified to land on this airstrip. The runway is surrounded by 5,500-meter peaks with a runway only 1981 meters long. Due to the fast descent that large planes need to make to approach the strip, many rank it as the most dangerous airport in the world.

* Toncontin Airport, Tegucigalpa, Honduras

As you may be noticing, airports in mountains become very hard to land at due to the variant terrain and often short approaches. Toncontin Airport is no different. In order for planes to prepare for descent, they must make a quick 45-degree bank turn to reach the runway in a valley. After this bank, planes must rapidly drop in altitude, being careful not to scrape the terrain directly underneath.