As I finished reading the article, I felt a smooth landing of the aircraft, followed by measured deceleration on the runway to a complete stop. We landed in Paro, after all!
The layout of this story is Sankar's own. On a glorious morning, my niece Rashmita, nephew Rupankar and I were already one hour into flying from Kathmandu, Nepal to Paro, Bhutan at about 25,000ft above the ground level. The carrier was the Druckair, the national airlines of Bhutan. Just before boarding the plane, the air-hostess at the gate had welcomed us with a smiling inquiry: “Is this your first time flying into Paro?” We all nodded our heads in agreement. She smiled and wished us “Enjoy the ride.” Rupankar claimed the window seat while I sat next to him on the aisle seat. Rashmita was in a front row. But during this last one hour of the flight, I wondered what the air-hostess really meant by “Enjoy the ride”. Then came the captain’s voice: “We will be approaching the airport soon, but the remainder of the flight is through various mountain ranges. Please fasten the seat belt and no more movement inside.” Soon, the flying altitude dropped a bit along with a few degrees of incline of the plane. I heard Rupankar’s voice: “Oh my God! We are literally flying inside a maze of mountain ranges,” I opened my travel-file to pull out the information literature I gathered on Paro and there it was, a few pages of information on arriving in Paro by air that I never bothered to read carefully. A copy of an internet report by Mr. Rick Dewsbury proclaiming “Paro Airport in Bhutan is 1.5 miles above sea level and surrounded by sharp peaks of up to 18,000ft tall.” As the plane was descending with an even more acute angle while navigating through a narrow passage between the tall peaks, I read a previous line from that same report “The tiny airport nestled among the steep mountains of the Himalayas is said to be the most dangerous in the world.” I kept hearing the air-hostess wishing us “Enjoy the ride,” while her smiling face occasionally flashing in the back of my mind. After a 15-20 minutes of such a ride and realizing that the altitude of the plane dropped significantly, I asked Rupankar “Are we there yet?” Looking outside, he replied “Almost there, but I don’t see any sign of the runway.” From my seat, I could now see the rooftops of the buildings at a certain height of the surrounding mountains through which we were flying. I took a one last look at Mr. Dewsbury’s report to find “The runway is just 6,500 feet long - one of the few in the world shorter than their elevation above sea level.” And then some more “Flights are only allowed during the daytime and under visual meteorological conditions - strict light allowances in which the pilot must make his judgements by eye rather than rely on instruments as is the case in nighttime flights.”
As I finished reading the article, I felt a smooth landing of the aircraft, followed by measured deceleration on the runway to a complete stop. We landed in Paro, after all! Comments are closed.
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