9 Most Dangerous Airports

From the world’s most remote airfield to the many, many ways you can die trying to land near Mt Everest, we look 9 most dangerous airports.

  1. Gibraltar International Airport

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  • Normally when people drive down the main street of their city they don’t have to give way to a landing plane.
  • But in the small British territory of Gibraltar this consider an everyday occurrence. For some reason they decided that it was 100% safe to have a main street and the runway intersect because what’s the worst that could happen?
  • It kinda works like a railway crossing, where the road is closed off while a Jumbo jet takes to the sky. Apparently the system works though and while incredibly dangerous there has never been an accident because of it…yet.
  1. LAX

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  • One of the most iconic airports is actually one that might be one to avoid…if you can that is.
  • LAX has consistently been named as one the USA’s most dangerous airports. In 1988 a survey of American pilots listed LAX as the most unsafe place to land and it received a “Black Star” rating from the international federation of airline pilots. In 2011 it was rated the 3rd most dangerous for runway incidents, having 60 over 5 years.
  • So what causes all the problems? Traffic. Just like the rest of LA, LAX is incredibly busy as is the sky above it. It seems like everything in California is just a disaster movie waiting to happen.
  1. Black Rock City

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  • Ever heard of a pop up airport? Well this is one of them, Black Rock City Airport exclusively exists for Burning Man.
  • Now why a temporary airport in the middle of the desert…only being there for an event that has a motto of “Safety Third” might be just a little risky doesn’t need explaining. But it’s mainly due to high turbulence, dust storms, rocky terrain and bounces from trying to land on the runway.
  • Planes have reportedly flipped over while trying to land. In 2003 two planes were destroyed resulting in one fatality….Yeah you should probably just drive to burning man in your VW van, hippies.
  1. McMurdo Station, Antarctica

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  • And if landing in the desert is hard just wait till I tell you about the problems with landing on a runway made of ice and snow.
  • McMurdo station in Antarctica has three different airfields but they all carry the same dangerous environment. One of the airfields, “Pegasus” is named after an aircraft…that crashed there. In fact it’s still there, buried in the snow. Talk about good omens.
  • The constantly unstable weather conditions and pitch black darkness are just the cherry on top of trying to land a huge aircraft on ice. But hey it’s not like you’re ever going to the South Pole.
  1. Saba Island

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  • Imagine trying to land a plane on one of the smallest commercial runway in the world which features rocky cliffs on both ends.
  • This tiny airstrip on Saba Island in the Caribbean is only 1300 feet long, which for comparison a normal airport is about 6000 feet. Meaning that only light aircraft can manage the risky landing.
  • Both ends feature cliffs that drop straight into the ocean so overshooting the runway means you’re going for a swim. There is also no air traffic control but I doubt there are that many people lining up for an attempted landing.

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