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My most unusual airport is Gibralter. Plane has to approach at an unusual angle to avoid Spanish airspace. One runway starts in the Atlantic and ends in the Mediterranean Sea. Cutting through the center of the runway is a road that has to be closed for take-offs and landings. Overshoot a landing and you're in the Mediterranean. Hit the runway early and you're in the Atlantic. Pass the halfway point of the landing to the plane's right is a cemetery.
I saw that in a '10 of the worlds most dangerous airports' program. Another was an airport in Tibet where the runway is on the side of a mountain and it is not level and follows the terrain. Another is on a Caribbean island where the plane has to drop over a roadway a few hundred feet to a short runway. If the plane lands long, it ends up in the ocean.
The one that is the most fun that I have landed on was the USS Sedona (KSEZ), Flagship airport of the Arizona Navy. Unlike most carriers that always have wind down the deck, The Sedona can have wind coming from different directions at different points along the runway, I have come over the number with a right cross wind, at mid field it switches to a left crosswind. Oh and to spice it up, you land up hill and take off downhill, so you might see a plane taking off in the opposite direction you are landing
In 1996 I was on a UAL flight non-stop from San Francisco that landed at Kai Tek. The turns right before the final approach were sharp and fast, and on the approach I remember looking out the window straight at rows of jam packed apartment buildings. Fortunately, Kai Tek closed 2 years later.
The other airport that has a similar and challenging approach is Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Two or three sharp, tight turns to avoid mountains with just a short time to line up for the approach. This is probably the most hazardous commercial airport approach in the Americas.
In 1996 I was on a UAL flight non-stop from San Francisco that landed at Kai Tek. The turns right before the final approach were sharp and fast, and on the approach I remember looking out the window straight at rows of jam packed apartment buildings. Fortunately, Kai Tek closed 2 years later.
The other airport that has a similar and challenging approach is Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Two or three sharp, tight turns to avoid mountains with just a short time to line up for the approach. This is probably the most hazardous commercial airport approach in the Americas.
YIKES!
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