Lukla Airport ( Tenzing-Hillary Airport)
Lukla Airport - The most dangerous and beautiful airport also known as Tenzing - Hillary Airport is a located at the town of Lukla , in Khumbu, Solukhumbu district of eastern Nepal. The airport was built in 1964 under the direction of Sir Edmund Hillary. The airport is also popular because Lukla is the point to start the climb to Mt Everest Base Camp.
Province No. : 1
District: Solukhumbu
History behind the construction of the airport
Edmund Hillary had planned to build the airport on flat farmlands but local farmers denied to give their land for the construction of the airport , so the airport was built at its current position.
Hillary bought the land from local peoples living in Lukla region and involved them in building the facilities. It was found that he gave US$2650 to buy the land from the locals.
There are daily flights between Lukla and Kathmandu during daylight hours but the flight is delayed or may get cancelled whenever the weather is not clear or bad. The airport is not only used for passenger flights , but also used for transporting most of the construction materials , as most of the
houses at Lukla have to be transported by airplanes.
The flight leaves between 9:00am and 11:00am from Kathmandu to Lukla. It takes about 30-40 minutes to reach Lukla airport from Kathmandu . The cost of the flight is around US$177. We can't found first, business, and economy class on the flights as all seats are the same class due to the limited size of the aircraft. 10kg is the maximum baggage limit per person on the flight which is not able to be increased .
Why Lukla Airport is taken as the most dangerous airport in the world?
- Lukla Airport is taken as one of the most dangerous airport in the world . Arriving and departing aircraft must use a single runway. The runway was not paved until 2001. The runway is set at a 12 percent incline thats why the pilots have to be more skilled than any others in the world.
The extremely short i.e. 527 meter long runway makes takeoff and landing of the aircraft very difficult as runway are more commonly 1,830 meters at minimum. The short runways are danger because a pilot has limited space both to get plane off the ground and to land it safely.
The harsh landscape around the airport is one of the another reason to make it most dangerous airport . The surrounding terrain makes aborting takeoffs and landings very difficult. In the direction of takeoff, the runway terminates at a cliff, so if the plane doesn't get enough speed it will tumble down the side of a mountain.
- Due to the difficulties of landing and takeoff at the airport of Lukla, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal sets high standards, for which only pilots who had completed at least 100 short takeoff and landing (STOL) missions, with over one year of STOL experience in Nepal and completed ten missions into Lukla with a certified instructor pilot are allowed to land at the airport.
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