23 Extremely Dangerous Airports

● Agatti Aerodrome, Lakshadweep, India

Constantly up for a potential extension (it’s only 4,000 feet long), planes have to risk the short runway to serve the local 36 Indian tourist islands.

● Barra International Airport, Scotland

Barra International Airport is the only airport on the planet where scheduled flights use a beach as the runway.

● Congonhas Airport, Brazil

Located just 5 miles from the center of downtown São Paulo. Apparently pilots need strong doses of alcohol after their flight to calm themselves down.

● Courchevel Altiport, France

Serving the uber rich who want to ski the Alps, this incredibly short runway has a ski mogul in the middle of it.

● Dammam King Fahd International Airport, Saudi Arabia

King Fahd International is the largest airport in the world in terms of landmass, sprawling over three hundred square miles of desert.

● Gibraltar International Airport, Gibraltar

With a major road running through the middle, traffic has to stop for every plane that lands.

● Gisborne Airport, New Zealand

This airport is unique. Unique because it has a regular freight train rolling through it every day!

● Gustaf III Airport, Saint Barthélemy

This runway is so small that planes can only carry a maximum of 20 people.

● Ice Runway, Antarctica

One of three major airstrips used to haul supplies and researchers to Antarctica’s McMurdo Station. This was developed to allow passenger Boeing jets to land instead of taking up room on cargo planes.

● Svalbard Airport, Svalbard, Norway

This airport is within the archipelago of the Svalbard which is a cluster of Norwegian islands that sits in the Arctic Ocean.

● Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong

Once called “the mother of all scary airports,” it was shut down in 1998 after pilots couldn’t stand it anymore.

● Kansai International Airport, Japan

Large enough to be viewed from space, it faces earthquakes, cyclones, and an unstable seabed.

● Los Angeles (LAX)

Los Angeles International has been ranked multiple times throughout the years as the most dangerous airport in the U.S.

● Madeira Airport, Portugal

It’s pretty easy to see why it’s so dangerous with an elevated (and artificial) runway

● Narsarsuaq Airport, Greenland

One of the most difficult approaches in the world, it requires flying up a fjord with severe turbulence and wind shear even on the calmest days of the year.

● Paro Airport, Bhutan

With only eight pilots qualified to land at this Himalayan airport, it’s no wonder passengers take anti-anxiety meds before landing.

● Princess Juliana Airport, St Martin

This one pretty much speaks for itself. Wow.

● Qamdo Bamda Airport, Tibet

At 14,000 feet, the thin oxygen often plays extreme havoc with engines, leaving pilots and passengers scared out of their minds.

● Old Mariscal Sucre International Airport, Ecuador

Closed last year for being too dangerous, it was beset by mountainous terrain, active volcanoes, and a valley prone to fog.

● Saba Landing Strip, Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport

Only fit for the smallest of planes, and even they often come VERY close to falling over the edge.

● The airport at Lukla, Nepal

This runway makes for a harrowing takeoff, with the end 2,900 meters up in the air.

● Toncontin Airport

Boeing 757s land and take off from this airport all the time. It is rated one of the most dangerous airports in the world due to the mountainous terrain.

● Wellington International Airport, New Zealand

A truly hazardous and short runway, it ends with a death-defying fall straight into the ocean.