1. Narsarsuaq Airport, Greenland
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| source google |
Similar to Antartica, the extreme 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 for any pilot. The weather is constantly stormy creating intense turbulence and low visibility on approach making it the worst airport in the world for both flight staff as well as passengers. 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. Time of landing is also one of the things yyou have to consider.
2. MCAS Futenma, Okinawa
This airport is situated in a US Marine Corps Air Station in Okinawa, Japan. The Navy and the Marine Corps rank it as the most dangerous airport in the world where F/A-18 Hornets and V-22 Osprey continuously land. The area is strategically important to the US military, which is part of the reason it maintains operation. Part of the reason this airport is so dangerous is because high-density housing sits in an area that should be cleared for emergency situations. This makes it one of the worst airports in Asia and a problem for most airlines.
3. Madeira Airport, Portugal
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| source google |
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. Pilots simply don't have enough space to land. 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.
4. McMurdo Air Station, Antarctica
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| source google |
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.
5. Gibraltar International
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| source google |
This is probably the most extreme airport in South Europe. While this runway isn't particularly hard to land at, an interesting design feature makes it incredibly dangerous. The main street in the area, Winston Churchill Avenue, intersects the runway and has to be closed when a plane needs to land. There is a stoplight on the road telling cars to stop, but there have been a number of close calls in the airport's history.
source: https://interestingengineering.com/top-10-dangerous-airports-world
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