Flying into Dangerous Lukla Airport in Nepal

I recall seeing a few years ago a TV show about the world’s ten most dangerous airports. Tegucigalpa, St. Maarten and a few others made the list.  And so did Lukla, Nepal.  Lukla is the typical starting point for anyone trekking along the route to Everest Base Camp, or to other points in the Himalayas. The alternative to the 35-min flight to Lukla (LUA) from Kathmandu is a long bus ride plus a few days of trekking to reach Lukla. I was not thrilled at the prospect of landing in one of the most dangerous airports but there really was no choice.

Heading to Lukla

The Lukla airport was built by none other than Sir Edmund Hillary himself in 1965 to facilitate developing the trekking business that he felt the local population needed.  The Lukla airport , officially named Tenzing-Hillary Airport after the first two people to have summitted Mt. Everest, was a dirt airstrip until just 1999.  Lukla is a town of a few thousand inhabitants perched high at around 2,840m / 9,300 ft above sea level.  Flights in and out of Lukla mainly fly in the morning when the weather and the visibility are what they need to be for a successful flight (read: does not crash).  Only planes that can handle short takeoffs and landings can operate from Lukla as the runway is only 1,700 ft (500m) long (or so) – that ain’t long at all!  Flights can easily be canceled for the day if the conditions are not right which could be more than one day in a row, leaving hundreds stranded in this small hamlet in the highlands of Nepal…  So beyond the flight involving a “dangerous” airport, one gets to worry about will the flight even go and what happens to the rest of the itinerary if the day is bust…

In any case, there are several airlines that run flights continuously in the morning to and from Lukla.  It is like a bus service of sorts with planes making quick turnarounds at either airport (Lukla/Kathmandu) to take advantage of the right weather.

Boarding pass to Lukla

The domestic terminal in Kathmandu is small and easy once you get past the chaos of getting to the airline counter and checking in.  We had no real problems, thanks to our local guides that were going to be traveling with us – they knew their way around!  After being dropped off, we walk along a covered walkway to a building in the back past a new building under construction.  The old building was old indeed but it was functional.  Once the flight is called (other Lukla flights were called too), we stepped out and there were 2-3 buses awaiting to take people to their planes.  It was a bit confusing and finally someone pointed us to our bus based on our boarding pass.

The plane sat maybe 20 people and the flight was not full.  I got a seat on the left so I would be facing north (towards the Himalayas).  Unfortunately, the windows were very dirty which assured that photos would not be National Geographic kind of material (that is my excuse anyway…).  Gosh, if I’d known and they’d let us, I would have gotten off the plane pre-takeoff and cleaned my window!

The taller Himalayas via dirty window

At times, the ground was not far below us…

Small village – one can see the local stupa left of center

Before taking off, the flight attendant (yes, there is one) checked that our seat belts were fastened and handed out hard candy (to choke on when the plane jumped?? no, thanks) and cotton balls for our ears – yes, I guess it was to be a noisy flight!  Those tasks and getting us in and out of the plane was all she had time to really do on such a short flight.  But I still appreciated her for taking care of us!

Dangerous Airport?

The danger reputation stems from the fact that the runway starts at the edge of the mountain and runs uphill (a 12% grade) until either the plane has stopped and turned or, it has met the wall.

The full runway (control tower on the right)

I have read, and was also told by a pilot, that part of the issue with landing is the uphill nature of the runway with the far end being higher than the end nearer to the pilot – this situation can trick the eye, giving the pilot a false sense of the aircraft’s vertical position before landing, potentially leading to accidents.

A plane meets the wall

On the reverse (the takeoff out of Lukla), either the plane catches air at the end of the runway where the runway meets the cliff’s edge, or it drops when the runway runs out until the plane catches lift (which I would hope it does…).

See what I mean about “up or drop” (Source: www.theaustralian.com)

Truthfully, and maybe naively, neither landing nor takeoff worried me much. What worried me the most was the turbulence that can be encountered on the way to and from Lukla.  Not helping things was the name of our Nepalese airline:  Tara Air.  I was happy until someone pronounced it, making it sound like “terror air” (pronounced with a thick Boston accent) which sent images flying (pardon the pun) all across my brain of a small plane jumping around due to high winds – a terror inducing ride ahead?  Hopefully not!!!

Upon boarding, I looked into the seat pocket in front of me and found the air sickness bag which left no doubt as to what its purpose was…  I should have taken it with me but at least I took a picture of it.

The flight into Lukla had gone very smoothly – no turbulence at all!  And then we started circling.  I was thinking to myself:  “so close and now we start circling” – was it weather-related, I wondered?  The delay turned out to not be about fog or weather issues and we experienced no turbulence.  The issue was that, since the Lukla airport only has four parking spots for planes and they were “taken,” we had to wait for a plane to take off before we were allowed to land.  That was a new one to me!  The flight back from Lukla was also completely smooth giving me a 2-for-2 no-turbulence flights so I may consider never going back since I had such good luck on my first visit to Lukla!

Back to landing in Lukla:  it was pretty darn cool as the small plane’s cockpit was open for us to see what was ahead – including seeing the runway ahead as we landed – or the mountains we were flying into before that.

The view out of the cockpit – how cool is that!

Leaving Lukla, the plane actually took off the ground before the runway ended so no drop was experienced, maybe to the chagrin of those in the plane who love roller-coasters – but not me!  Here is a video of my own takeoff – notice when we leave the runway, right before it ends (it is a noisy video so make sure you are not at max volume!).

In the end, as you may surmise, this was a far better choice than the bus and the walk 🙂  And now I can say I “survived” one of the world’s most dangerous airports!

Happy flyer – and dapper too!

Pin this crazy airport to your travel board!