A Scary Flight to Lukla, Nepal

Our second day in Nepal was an action packed day. We agreed to go the mountains and view the beautiful Himalayas, I mean that is why you come to Nepal in the first place! Our destination was Lukla, Nepal.

So we get ready real quick, pack all of our belongings, check out from our hotel and get a cheap taxi to the airport. It seems like all I did during this trip was visit the airport.

Now I kind of told you about the Tribhuvan Airport before in a earlier post. It is a very run down airport and kind of confusing. First of all the International and Domestic terminals run like they are different airports. They use the same runway but they are separated by a roadway to get to the terminal. The Domestic Terminal serves any domestic flights within Nepal and these planes are most likely going to be small Cessna’s planes, Otter planes, etc. These planes fly to places like Lukla and Pokhara. Places that are hard to get to and are up in the mountains (this was probably the most dangerous part of the journey).

Now I’m sure most of you don’t know the safety records of these planes in Nepal, so I’m going to clue you in, they aren’t exactly the best! In fact the airport that I was flying to, Lukla, was named the most dangerous airport in the world and has had several severe accidents, most resulting in fatalities (just in 2012 there was 2 plane accidents… killing tourists).

Lukla, Nepal is located in the northeastern part of Nepal in the Himalayas. It sits at an elevation of around 9,500 feet and is the gateway for access to Mount Everest. (there is a possibility to hike all the way to Lukla from Jiri but that would take around 4 days to do). So basically if we wanted to see Mount Everest and the Himalayas, the only true option is to fly. Something that is scary after learning about how many times these flights actually go down. Just type it in Google if you’re curious. In fact just before we arrived in Nepal there had been a plane that had gone down. It was an Agni Airlines, the same airline that we took to Lukla.

So we arrived at the airport and it’s very early in the morning. We had to arrive early so we can secure a flight to Lukla and make sure we get out as quick as possible. (If you leave earlier in the morning there is a better chance that the weather will be better than the afternoon; fog tends to settle in). So basically we had to go through some lame screening to be able to enter the terminal and buy our ticket (at best it is a very weird set up).

The first airline we go to immediately told us that flights to Lukla were all cancelled for the day and that there was no way we were going to get out on a flight. Well there goes my dream of ever reaching the Himalayas! So I do like any good traveler does. I don’t take that as the real truth and continue to move on to other airlines. And by chance we stumbled on Agni Airlines who was flying out that day (this whole trying to find an airline to take us thing was why we ended up with Agni. Actually Agni only has like 1 flight a day while this other airline called Tara had several flights a day. Which means that we should have booked with Tara if we wanted to leave early from Lukla or needed to for whatever reason).

But whatever somehow we had stumbled in to this awful looking office with 3 Agni Airline workers who were telling us that of course they are flying and that we should pay now. That is when I get worried (refer to this, this is shady at best). I hate being pressured into making decisions quickly because I know why they are trying to pressure us. They want to make a sale and they don’t want us to go to a different airline or whatever. So we did end up paying for the flight which cost around 250 dollars for 1 person (both ways)… I do feel that was kind of expensive for a 25 minute flight that is considered to be unsafe.

And so there we were handling over an obscene amount of cash for even an American, no less for them. We were given our tickets and then our luggage was taken from us to be put on the plane. Always an uncomfortable feeling when you part from your entire world on a trip. And off we went to sit in the waiting terminal for our flight. We were able to find internet to update our families, etc (which is always a nice option to have)… and then we heard other cities were getting cancelled. I was getting nervous because I saw online that there was supposed to be some weather in Lukla but then again there is no good reliable weather service in Lukla so it’s hard to say when they will cancel a flight and when they won’t.

So you just take the word of the people who tell you it’s fine. That’s all you can do. My heart is pounding and wondering why I am even doing this. Will my family have to come get my body in Nepal… is this safe? One of the flight attendant tell us and said your plane to Lukla, Nepal is ready. And so after waiting we are taken on this old, almost broken down bus to the airplane where you see your luggage being loaded. This is no backing out now. And so we board the plane and take the right side of the plane because that is the side that has the greatest view of the Himalayas.

Everything after that happens very quickly. Once everybody boarded the flight, the plane is ready to go and there is no waiting, or security checks or announcements. In less than 5 minutes you are heading down the runway and the plane thrusts itself up in the air (most of the problems occur around take-off and landing). Kathmandu is a smoggy city so sometimes it can be very hard to see causing an accident.

Flying in a small plane is intense. You feel every movement the plane makes; every gust of wind and every updraft. For a nervous flyer this would be torture but you just have to realize that this is totally normal for planes and the likely hood of crashing is very slim. On these routes Nepal actually has some of the best technical pilots around because they have to be. So we start heading to Lukla and there are mountains climbing above 20,000 ft in all directions.

The flight to Lukla is only 25 minutes long and you do get great views of the rural valleys below and of the distant Himalayas. The day we went it was cloudy and that made me even more nervous. On a clear day this flight would be intense but the fact that clouds were blocking some mountain views made me question about whether I should have been on this flight or not. I guess it was too late to back out then. So I just calmly sat there and me and Matt both just looked at each other hoping we would arrive at our destination.

After jumping in and out of clouds it did actually start to clear up near Lukla. It became clear that we were landing as you can see mountains right next to the airplane window that towered above. There is no going back for the plane now and the plane is on its approach to land. I was actually able to see the runway from where I was sitting in the plane by seeing through the cockpit (yes the cockpit door was open.) And I could clearly see a small landing strip! That was our landing and we were on our approach.

I did think that we were fortunate not to have clouds that day. I remember a video of a plane crashing in Lukla back in 2008 that crashed due to the plane trying to land through clouds. The clouds were fortunately higher above and all we had to worry about was making the runway and stopping in time. So as our approach gets closer me and Matt lock hands and wait for the last seconds. It sounds dramatic but your mind starts thinking about horrible ideas.

So finally the plane gets closer and closer until you hear a loud thud and a loud noise as the plane tries to stop quickly. The g-force is intense but the plane finally turns into the entry way of the tarmac at Lukla and the plane quickly comes to a halt! We were done with it! We were elated that we made the decision to go and that we came out on the other side perfectly fine!

First thing we felt in Lukla was the cooler weather! It was finally comfortable to walk around in and we weren’t in the smog of Kathmandu anymore. So we had to wait for our bags for a few minutes but after we were stumbling our way through Lukla…