Introducing Tenzing Hillary Airport
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 02.11.08 | 11:54 AM ET
The airport closest to Mount Everest, previously known as Lukla airstrip, will now be called Tenzing Hillary Airport in honor of the first climbers to summit Everest, the Nepalese government announced. Sir Edmund Hillary died last month; Tenzing Norgay died in 1986. Most visitors to Everest land at the airstrip. “It is a dramatic introduction,” the BBC notes, “as the plane has to drop steeply between the mountains and then lands on a runway which slopes steeply upwards.” YouTube has some great video.
Here’s footage of the approach. Note the relief on passengers’ faces after landing:
And here’s a terrific short clip of a plane taking off, complete with one onlooker’s “I can’t believe it!”
Related on World Hum:
* Nepal Airlines Sacrifices Goats in Front of Troubled Plane
* Everest Base Camp: ‘The Himalayan Version of Burning Man’
Photo of Tenzing Hillary Airport by Ben Tubby via Flickr, (Creative Commons).