World's Most Dangerous Airports: Adak Airport, Alaska
1/09/2008 at 2:00 PM
Tags: World's Most Dangerous Airports, Alaska Travel, ADK (all tags)
We've got another airport to add to our list of the world's most dangerous airports. Adak Airport, the westernmost public airfield in the United States, makes our list, thanks to tipster Ron's awesome story:
This used to be a US Naval Air Station way the heck out 'n gone in the Aleutian Islands from about 1942 until closure in 1997. Since then, it's become a civilian-operated airport. I'm not an air operations specialist of any sort, but as a civilian contractor working for the Navy, we commuted through Adak a number of times in 1989, 1990 and 1991 on our way to Amchitka, from Anchorage.
I specifically remember bouncing into Adak virtually every time we landed or took off from there. Seems the winds were always 30+, and sometimes as high as 60 when we finally got in or out. Then there was the fog.
There were several times we stooged around over the island for hours, hoping for 1/4 mile visibility so we could land. We usually made it in about 50% of the time on flights from Anchorage. If we were lucky enough to get in and out of Adak, we made it to Amchitka less than 50% of the time. We were flying Reeve Air.
One takeoff from Adak remains firmly implanted in my memory to this day.
It was mostly clear (very unusual for ADK), cold (teens) and very, very windy. We were flying an MD-11 (I think) and buffeted into the wind on take-off. Once wheels were up, we made the usual left turn to avoid the mountain at the end of the runway. (The mountain contained numerous glints of aluminum from a multitude of crashes over the years.)
Once we were banked left, the MD-11 apparently hit a severe wind shear and plummeted straight down toward the ocean, on our left wing. I was in a left-hand window seat and all I could see was water, rushing up towards us. In the seat next to me was a guy named Ben; all 6' 6" and 300 pounds of him, who was also on his way to Amchitka.
As the plane spun down, I grabbed what I thought was the armrest as tight as I could. People were screaming, one of the flight attendants was plastered up against the ceiling, stuff was flying out of the overheads like crazy and I absolutely knew we were gonna die.
Somehow, the Reeve pilot managed to force the plane back up into a more or less stable flight environment. It took us what seemed an eternity to make the 40 minute flight to Amchitka. Once we landed there, ALL the passengers headed straight for the bar--the flight crew as well!
The next day, I ran into Big Ben in the hallway and he showed me the massive bruises on his arm. I thought he might have been hit by flying debris during our unplanned descent, but, no, he said the bruises were from me grabbing what I thought was the armrest. Now, I'm a pretty small guy compared to Ben. But, apparently, during the 3,000 foot drop towards the ocean, I put enough pressure on his arm to leave marks which lasted over a week.
As a retired Air Force guy and now with many years as a government contractor, I have over a million air miles and an appropriate number of scary flights. But, without doubt, those white-knuckled ins and outs of Adak will never be forgotten.
Have your own dangerous airport story? Do tell!
Related Stories:
· UAK: Narsarsuaq, Greenland [Jaunted]
· LUA: Lukla Airport, Nepal [Jaunted]
· World's Most Dangerous Airports coverage [Jaunted]
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