The 7 scariest airport runways
These airports should probably be avoided if you're prone to suffering from a fear of flying
While flying can be a terrifying prospect for many, the sight of these runways could be enough to put them off flying for life.
Some feature a shorter runway than most, while others require pilots to manoeuvre mountains, or bodies of water at the end of them.
Hechi Jinchengjiang Airport, China
This airport opened in 2014, and to construct it builders had to level off the top of 60 hilltops in order to place the runway. To level the runway for the £85million airport, architects used dynamite to blow off the top of the mountain. Now pilots have to navigate onto the short runway, 2,200ft above sea level.
Gibraltar International Airport, Gibraltar
At Gibraltar’s airport, a highway intersects the runway. This means that whenever a flight is due to land in Gibraltar the road has to be closed. The traffic on the Winston Churchill Avenue is kept at a standstill for about 10 minutes to allow flights to land. As well as having to contend with traffic, the runway is also surrounded on three sides by the coast.
Toncontin International Airport, Honduras
Barra Airport, Scotland
Madeira Airport, Madeira
This is another particularly short runway, based at the bottom of a slope and held up by pillars. One side of the runway teeters over the water’s edge, made all the more hair-raising by often-harsh wind conditions.
Tenzing-Hillary Airport, Nepal
This runway is short and upward sloping and is only accessible by helicopter or small fixed-wing planes. The runway is also at high altitude, around 9,334 ft above sea level.
Gustaf III Airport, St Barth's
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