I think the labelling as dangerous is somehow misleading. Everything can be dangerous if not managed properly. These airports inflict difficulties and atypical situations, but it seems that we have managed to control them. Do we have any figures showing that we have decreased safety levels at these locations or higher than the ones at other advanced airports? I would say for example that a modern airport with less challenging layout and surroundings but with hundreds of aircraft movements per unit of time can be more dangerous due to the complexity of managing the ground operations and airspace. To make the long story short, the fact that we still operate safely under the conditions these ten airports impose shows our incredible ability to adapt and our capability to harness known risks.

Nektarios - thanks for your comments below.  I'm aware that the airport in Nepal has suffered a number of accidents in recent years which from memory was owing to the weather conditions.  I've had a look on the internet and couldn't specifically find any statistics for aircraft accidents related to landings/take-offs from airports.  It would be interesting to know if there are any and compare them with the airports listed in this video.

I've seen two National Geographic programmes showing the 10 most dangerous airports in the world and they are different.  In the first programme Camp Bastion was named as the most dangerous airport and not Greenland, and Madeira airport (Funchal) was 5th not 3rd.  We regularly land at Madeira as we have a time share there and in about 20 landings, we've only experienced 1 go around and landed safely the second time.  However, there are nasty cross winds there and they do have problems when the wind is from the north.  The arport isn't situated quite on the coast in that there is a motorway that runs around it and underneath the runway extension so the filming makes it look worse than it is.  I've not been to any of the other airports so can't comment but we are thinking of going to Greenland next year so watch this space!


I would agree wholeheartedly with Nektarios' comment about the misleading labelling as the risks will be known and managed.  Each airport has landing minima below which an aircraft can't land which depends on a number of factors including navigation equipment installed at the airport.  Also, the pilots will be specifically trained as was highlighted for the Bhutan airport where only 8 pilots can land.


To answer Deborah's comment, I suspect that the only way we could get any statistics on these issues would be to search through the records of the Air Accident Investigation Board (for the UK or national equivalent) as they investigate these types of issues.  I would be very surprised if any airports publish them or if they have to they will be buried in the fine print of the Annual Reports or on their websites.


Virginia

Thanks Virginia for adding your thoughts and comments below, I've changed the title of the discussion topic. I've seen television programmes showing bush pilots and those operating in arctic conditions doing amazing cross wind landings where the only facility was a basic landing strip or even on beaches, so experience obviously counts in those cases where there is no other technology to rely on.

I've just come across this item by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) – which works in partnership with the international aviation community to improve safety, emphasising improving safety performance through standardisation, monitoring and implementation – they've just released their latest Safety Report that shows 2017 was the safest year ever on record for aviation.