Only 8 pilots are certified to land at Paro Airport, Himalaya.

As far as landing goes, it's considered the most challenging airport in the world. Landings in this airport are described as terrifying and breathtaking. Approaching the airport you will see 18,000 foot tall peaks on both sides of the valley and you are likely to make a crosswind landing

The airport is located at a mile and a half above sea level. The runway is 6,445 feet long, which means that it is shorter than its elevation. The 8 pilots manage to bring more than 30,000 people per year into this airport located in Asia. The pilots encounter vicious winds in the valley where the airport is located. (Source)

Here's a short video of a landing.

With surrounding peaks as high as 18,000 ft (5,500 m) it is considered one of the world's most challenging airports, and as of October 2009, only eight pilots in the world are certified to land at the airport. Flights at Paro are allowed under visual meteorological conditions only and are restricted to daylight hours from sunrise to sunset.(Wiki)

This next picture was taken minutes before making the final descent...

Landing at Paro Airport has been described by many people as breathtaking. Conversely, the tiny airstrip situated a mile and a half above sea level has also been described as completely terrifying and is roundly regarded as one of the most challenging airports to land in the world.(Source)

SS

I love how the title screen looks like one from an old horror film lol. What a crazy ride that would be for me, I am deathly afraid of planes. Props to the pilots that can fly here! What crazy jobs there are out there!

Cool find S&F

Very interesting. The Himalayas have always been mysterious just for being so large and inaccessible. I wonder what kind of special training one has to undergo to get the qualifications to land at that airport.

Madeira Funchal airport on the island of Madeira in Portugal has had more deaths landing there than the Himalayas airport. Both are extremely difficult to land at.

Hm, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say they probably don't do instrument approaches and landings.

Pretty cool.

Gotta be one heck of pilot to do something like that, kudos to those 8 out there.

Originally posted by thepupils
Madeira Funchal airport on the island of Madeira in Portugal has had more deaths landing there than the Himalayas airport. Both are extremely difficult to land at.

Yeah...this doesn't look much easier...

Madeira Funchal airport crosswind landings

reply to post by Spike Spiegle
My guess would be that the reason there are so few pilots certified to make that landing is that it is hard to find many pilots with cajones made of steel! These are super pilots!

Love the new avi SS!

I miss some of the closed down airports (Kai Tek). Wild approaches are always interesting to watch, especially when they film from the cockpit.

Have you seen the videos from Gibraltar? That one is fun. It goes right through the city center, and across a busy street. They had to put a red light in for when planes are landing.