When pilots first train, they learn that taking off from a runway is the easy part. There’s nothing in the air to impede a plane, but landing is a different story. You have to line up just right with the runway and descend carefully, taking account of wind patterns, to make a smooth landing and not a crash.
Some airports are much harder to land at than others, and the county of Bhutan’s Paro International Airport (PBH) is one of the hardest on the globe. The whole country is inside the Himalayan mountains, and the landing strip at PBH is tucked between two peaks that rise to 18,000 feet in the air. Talk about threading a needle.
Captain pilot Chimi Dorji loves the challenge. He pilots an Airbus 319 regional passenger jet in and out of PBH regularly, with an icon of the Buddha in the cockpit. On a recent landing, passengers were gripping the arms of their seats as they watched the landing strip come into view outside their windows. When Dorji makes a perfect touchdown, the tension is released and the people on the plane cheer.
The 319 is the perfect plane to use in the area; PBH is far too small for a full-sized jet like a 777 wide body. Captain Dorji dismisses the technical challenge with the nonchalance of a seasoned aviator, calling the airport landing “difficult, but not dangerous.” He said if landing at PBH were actually “dangerous” then no one would do it.
PBH is listed as a “category C” airport. Pilots who want to land there have to take special training to get certified. And there’s no using the autopilot and radar systems; pilots have to show that they can land entirely manually. There’s no room for error. Just a small deviation from the right descent slope and a plane would be plowing into houses near the runway.
Only 50 pilots in the world are certified to land at PBH.
Dorji said pilots need to have “area competence,” a mental picture of the natural and built landscape around the runway. It’s like an aviation version of what London cab drivers call “the knowledge,” having the lay of the land entirely in your head.
In Paro, it’s not just the narrow gap between mountain peaks that makes it difficult. The area’s elevation above sea level means the air is thinner, requiring the planes to fly faster to stay aloft. This applies all the way down to the ground, meaning that pilots have to land faster than they would at most other airports.
Dorji said pilots going into Paro also try not to land during the hottest part of midday as thermal winds can throw a plane to and from.
And you won’t get in or out of Paro between dusk and dawn. Since the airport has no radar, flying happens on visual cues alone.
