Landing at Lukla, Nepal airport

Lukla Airport (IATA: LUA, ICAO: VNLK) is a small airport in the Town of Lukla in Khumbu, eastern Nepal. In January 2008, the government of Nepal announced that the airport would be renamed in honor of Sir Edmund Hillary[1]and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, the first persons to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Sir Edmund Hillary died on January 11, 2008. Tenzing Norgay died in 1986. The airport is now officially named Tenzing-Hillary Airport (LUA|VNLK)[2]

Runway characteristics include 527m of bitumen runway. The width is 20m and the runway incline is a staggering 12%. The apron has 4 stands and there is one heli-pad located 150m below the TWR (air traffic control tower). No landing aids are available and Air Traffic Service is limited to AFIS (Aerodrome Flight Information Service) only.

The airport is quite popular as Lukla is the place where most people start their trek to climb Mount Everest.

There are frequent daily flights (i.e. no night service) between Lukla and Kathmandu, weather permitting. Although the flying distance is short, it can easily be raining in Lukla while the sun is shining brightly in Kathmandu, or vice versa. The airport's siren blasts the mountain air to inform personnel of incoming aircraft. The paved tarmac is only accessible to helicopters and small fixed wing short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft such as Twin Otters or Dornier Do 228. There is about a 700-metre (2,000 ft) angled drop at the end of the runway to the valley below.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Nepal trekking
• airports
• landing
• STOL

[GoFast0001]

Lukla also has a 2000' drop off on the approach/departure end of the runway, so if you have any problems on departure, and try to stop, there's a good chance you'll end in a pile of metal at the bottom of the valley (remember, it has a 12% downward gradient on takeoff - very difficult to stop on). Last of all, if you get too low on approach you're going to eat granite. In Panama, you're going to get wet.

[GoFast0001]

Lukla is far more dangerous than your airport in Panama (except maybe for the political situation). A sea level airport with ocean on both sides, even if it's shorter, makes for a much safer runway. The performance of an aircraft at 9100 feet altitude (the elevation of Lukla) is far lower than it would be at sea level. The airport is built into the side of a mountain, so a go-around from short final on is impossible. You are committed to land or die. (cont.)

[GoFast0001]

No, it's in real-time, but the landing sure comes fast!

The aircraft is a Dornier Do 228, not a Twin Otter, although both are used for service into Lukla.

[vxcomanche]

Wow these guys are all kindsa crazy! :D Nice.

[VPmagal]

@1509ps San Blas is shorte, however Lukla is 9,300 feet high in the mountains. If you consider the mountain winds, higher true airspeeds, and the optical illusion during approach....Lukla is going to be very dangerous than airports at (or near) sea level.

[ALBORNOZ24AMG]

this is the most extreme airport in the world.

History Channel.

[lighthouscolor]

Even more daring are the people who would finance and insure a plane operating into and out of Lukla. For what the insurance premiums must be, why don't they just spend a little extra and use rotory wing chinooks or something like that. I hear most of those flights are just a short hop to Katmandu anyway.

[rasputinsdog]

Holy crap! A go-around might be positively LETHAL with the mountains directly downwind!

[mounteverest53]

cool vid, looks a bit scary to me!

[applejuice1324]

the purple lines were very helpful esp cuz this airport is hard to spot! ... nice touch!

[flydelta522]

very extreme landing