Monday, April 30, 2012

The Flight into Lukla

Simply spectacular! We took off from Kathmandu in a Yeti Airlines de Havilland Twin Otter. It seats 20 passengers, 10 down each side separated by the aisle.


It has a high wing & two powerful turbo props, which is well suited to this type of landing in Lukla. As soon as we took off from KTM, one can see the city sprawling out on the plain.


Within minutes we were crossing high ridge lines, seemingly just a few hundred feet below our wheels. Off in the distance we could see peaks getting higher & then suddenly Nick excitedly called me over. The horizon had distinctly changed: we could now 'FBMs' - big mountains!


We had a very smooth landing at Lukla. It is incredible to see this tiny airstrip right in the middle of the village.




The upper photo is the view from the top of the runway, with the control tower just out of view on the right hand side. The lower photo shows the area where the aircraft dance in between each other as the head to the tiny terminal. In the space of 30 mins we saw 4 aircraft land, unload the passengers & cargo, then fill up & head off. In about 4 weeks we will be back here to experience the take off!

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