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World's scariest airport runways revealed!

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ANI Sydney

From sea ice runways to dropping down from a mountain cliff to do the take off, a travel deal website has revealed world's top ten scariest runways.

According to Airfarewatchdog.com, Antartica's Sea Ice Runway leads the scary list with the runway being unpaved and prone to cracks.

A few years ago, this runway melted leading to flight cancellations and pilots have been warned to avoid landing 'too heavily' and try not to sink more than 25 centimetres into the ice, news.com.au reports.

Gibraltar Airport comes close second for being beside a major highway that leads into Spain followed by Portugal's Madeira Airport which has such a short runway, that it forces planes to take a last-minute sharp turn over the high mountains.

 

Pouring rain, wind and a short runway close to mountains make Ketchikan International Airport a wild ride as the fourth scariest runway.

The fifth scariest runway is of Tibet's Qamdo Bamda Airport, which is located more than 4200 meters above the sea level.

Greenland's Narsarauq Airport, makes the ride thrilling with 90-degree turns through a fjord with the risk of icebergs nearby.

For Saba Island's Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport runway, only experienced pilots can dare to fly with high winds and surrounding mountains.

Hong Kong's Kai Tak Airport dons the eighth position for being so terrifying that it was closed in 1998, as the planes were forced to fly very low over Hong Kong in order to reach the landing strip and take a sharp turn to end up on the runway.

Poor weather, high approach and high surrounding terrain make Eagle County Regional Airport Vail a challenging runway ride.

Matekane Air Strip in Lesotho is located at the end of a mountainside gully, and instead of taking off in the air like normal flights, planes do the daredevil drop down the side of a cliff until they start flying.

The summarized top ten scariest airport runways list includes:

1. Sea Ice Runway, Antarctica

2. Gibraltar Airport, Gibraltar

3. Madeira Airport, Portugal

4. Ketchikan International Airport

5. Qamdo Bamda, Tibet

6. Narsarauq Airport, Greenland

7. Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport, Saba Island

8. Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong

9. Eagle County Regional Airport Vail

10.

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First Published: Oct 24 2013 | 3:28 PM IST

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