Commercial air travel is almost always uneventful, and safe to use, so we don’t have to be afraid of flying. But taking a less standard flight to exotic places can be more thrilling – consider for example landing on the world’s strangest and most dangerous airports!
Some people’s fear of flying is so intense that they avoid using it as a form of transport. They just imagine the plane falling from the sky, and crashing on the ground. While imagination can be vivid and convincing, the reality is that it’s far more probable to get in a car accident than to crash in an airplane.
Moreover, it’s not the flying phase that is most dangerous as people suspect. It’s near the end of the flight and almost on the surface of Earth when most accidents happen. Nearly fifty percent of accidents occur during the final approach and landing. Statistics don’t lie – landing is the hardest and most dangerous phase of the flight.
Landing is so challenging that sometimes the pilot may even approach, and in the last moment decide not to land. This maneuver is called a “Go-around.” Here we can see a B737 by KLM go for an go-around:
Fortunately the skilled pilot saved the plane from a disastrous contact with the tarmac by performing a go-around. But this is not always the case – many pilots don’t realize when a go-around might be necessary. Landing is a fast-paced event, and it can be difficult to see the warning signs of a landing gone wrong, and in consequence not use the go-around. A bad landing without the use of this crash-saving maneuver looks like this:
