I came across the above video on YouTube. I remember watching a television programme a few years ago about the ten most dangerous airports in the world, but there seems to be some new ones in this video.
Have you ever flown in or out of any of those shown in this video and if so does the video match your experiences?
I've seen two National Geographic programmes showing the 10 most dangerous airports in the world and they are different. In the first programme Camp Bastion was named as the most dangerous airport and not Greenland, and Madeira airport (Funchal) was 5th not 3rd. We regularly land at Madeira as we have a time share there and in about 20 landings, we've only experienced 1 go around and landed safely the second time. However, there are nasty cross winds there and they do have problems when the wind is from the north. The arport isn't situated quite on the coast in that there is a motorway that runs around it and underneath the runway extension so the filming makes it look worse than it is. I've not been to any of the other airports so can't comment but we are thinking of going to Greenland next year so watch this space!
I would agree wholeheartedly with Nektarios' comment about the misleading labelling as the risks will be known and managed. Each airport has landing minima below which an aircraft can't land which depends on a number of factors including navigation equipment installed at the airport. Also, the pilots will be specifically trained as was highlighted for the Bhutan airport where only 8 pilots can land.
To answer Deborah's comment, I suspect that the only way we could get any statistics on these issues would be to search through the records of the Air Accident Investigation Board (for the UK or national equivalent) as they investigate these types of issues. I would be very surprised if any airports publish them or if they have to they will be buried in the fine print of the Annual Reports or on their websites.
I've seen two National Geographic programmes showing the 10 most dangerous airports in the world and they are different. In the first programme Camp Bastion was named as the most dangerous airport and not Greenland, and Madeira airport (Funchal) was 5th not 3rd. We regularly land at Madeira as we have a time share there and in about 20 landings, we've only experienced 1 go around and landed safely the second time. However, there are nasty cross winds there and they do have problems when the wind is from the north. The arport isn't situated quite on the coast in that there is a motorway that runs around it and underneath the runway extension so the filming makes it look worse than it is. I've not been to any of the other airports so can't comment but we are thinking of going to Greenland next year so watch this space!
I would agree wholeheartedly with Nektarios' comment about the misleading labelling as the risks will be known and managed. Each airport has landing minima below which an aircraft can't land which depends on a number of factors including navigation equipment installed at the airport. Also, the pilots will be specifically trained as was highlighted for the Bhutan airport where only 8 pilots can land.
To answer Deborah's comment, I suspect that the only way we could get any statistics on these issues would be to search through the records of the Air Accident Investigation Board (for the UK or national equivalent) as they investigate these types of issues. I would be very surprised if any airports publish them or if they have to they will be buried in the fine print of the Annual Reports or on their websites.
