Mingbo Airport: The Forgotten Most Dangerous Airport In The World

In the annals of the history of Nepal’s aviation lies an understated (perhaps it would be better to say unearthed (?), at least over the internet) story—one often eclipsed by the towering fame of Lukla Airport. Before Lukla cemented its reputation (albeit falsely) as the “world’s most dangerous airport,” another airport in the Everest region located at a staggering altitude of 4,650 meters might have had this rather racy distinction. The Mingbo Airport was audacious project that was conceived not out of convenience but necessity.

The Mingbo Airstrip was constructed by Sir Edmund Hillary, the person after whom Lukla Airport is often referred to as Hillary Airport. Mingbo was constructed in the shadow of Ama Dablam, one of more gracious mountains of the Everest region. The construction of the airport wasn’t borne out of the thrill to push the boundaries of where an airport could be constructed. It was a mission grounded in purpose and collaboration.

Can A Helicopter Fly To The Top Of Mount Everest?

Mingbo Airport: A Collective Effort in the Harshest of Climates

In the 1960s, at a time when resources in the Himalayas were scarce, constructing an airstrip in an unforgiving environment of around 15,000 ft seemed almost absurd. Mingbo, much like Lukla’s construction, was constructed without the use of any machinery. One could argue that Mingbo’s construction was a cultural confluence, a melding of Western ambition with local expertise.

Hillary, in his autobiography, remarked about how the construction of the airport began:

“So at my request, the Silver Hut wintering group put a team of men on to levelling the site at 15,000 feet,  chopping off the frozen clumps of snow grass, filling in the worst of the holes, and rolling away the large boulders. Snow sometimes restricted their activity but it rarely lay for long once the sun was shining again. When the strip had been cleared to 400 yards the first landing was made.

When the first landing was made, the aircraft suffered a damage on the tail wheel. At the end where the aircraft were to take off from, two large boulders were present and had to be cleared off. But these large rocks weighed several tons. While the mountaineers wielded sledgehammers, attempting to shatter the massive rocks littering the area, the rocks wouldn’t budge. So the local Sherpas, employed traditional methods: they dug craters beside the largest boulders, inserted long sticks as levers, and used sheer force to maneuver the rocks into these pits, gradually leveling the terrain.

Getting supplies to the Everest region, even to this day is a challenge, thanks largely to the fact that only Short Take-off and Landing (STOL) fixed-wing aircraft and a handful of helicopters fly to Hillary (Lukla) Airport.  Lukla is perched at an altitude of 2800 meters or so, Mingbo was located at an altitude of around 4,600 meters. To give you another perspective into the specifics of Lukla: the runway of the Mingbo Airstrip was improved to 500 yards, a length smaller than Lukla’s.

Mingbo airstrip was constructed for humanitarian reasons

In 1959, following the Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule, waves of Tibetan refugees began pouring into Nepal. Thousands found themselves stranded in the harsh terrain of the Khumbu region (the very region where Lukla, Mingbo, and Syangboche airports are located). It was a scene of desperation: yaks slaughtered to stave off hunger, their meat hung out to dry under the Himalayan sun.

Hillary recognized the dire need for aid. The Mingbo Airstrip was envisioned as a lifeline, a conduit through which supplies could reach these refugees. A Pilatus Porter operated by the Swiss government ferried essentials (such as food) to Mingbo. The same airport (and the plane) also supplied materials for constructing Khumjung Secondary School.

Mingbo Airstrip was a high-altitude gamble in the 1960s

The thin air around the Mingo airstrip posed insurmountable challenges for both pilots and aircraft. No aircraft maintenance facilities were present at this airport and if planes landing here encountered any issues, getting maintenance personnel would require more than two weeks of trek to get to Mingbo.

Here’s an excerpt from Hillary’s book that gives us a cue into the dangers of operating in and out of the airport:

“To my startled eyes the short strip ahead of us seemed quite inadequate for our needs and the hill at the end loomed up with frightening rapidity. At the last moment Captain Schrieber pulled back on the stick and we lifted sluggishly off the ground. Next moment he had tipped up onto one wing to dodge the hill and we were slipping through the gully to the left, to be precipitated out into free air…..”

Much like how the Nepalese government did not have any idea that a helicopter would land at the top of Everest, it didn’t know about Sir Hillary’s aircraft operations in Mingbo either. When the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) learned about it, it decided to send a personnel to test whether the airfield was worthy of operations. Hillary, in the following passage, gives us a glimpse of how dangerous it was to land into Mingbo:

“As Captain Schrieber headed down there was a fierce sideways gust of wind and the aircraft started sliding towards the left-hand edge of the field. Captain Schrieber’s reaction was immediate – he just dropped the aircraft from thirty feet to land with a huge thud and then rolled upwards close to the rocks on the left-hand side where we stopped safely at the top. We were all severely shaken. The Civil Aviation gentleman staggered out of the aircraft and vomited noisily.”

The airstrip’s potential to serve as a reliable gateway to Everest was put into halt after this flight. And so, CAAN decided to put a permanent stop to operations at Mingbo Airstrip.

Mingbo vs. Lukla: A Tale of Two Airstrips

If we are to envisage the construction of Mingbo Airport as a bold experiment, Lukla was its polished successor. Situated at a lower elevation and blessed with slightly more forgiving conditions, Lukla quickly became the go-to airstrip for adventurers and locals alike. Over time, its reputation for danger grew. The crashes in and around the airport hels garner some negative press for the airport. The of Mingbo, as a result, has faded into obscurity, an echo lost amidst the mountains.

Mingbo’s story doesn’t speak of commercial success but of how humanitarian needs sometimes are more pressing and urgent.

The Legacy of Mingbo Airstrip

Today, the Mingbo Airstrip lies dormant, a forgotten relic of a bygone era. The airstrip still serves as a place where people put out tents during their trekking expeditions.

The lessons of Mingbo linger, even if the physical site does not. While Lukla takes center stage in modern-day conversations about dangerous airports, Mingbo’s tale barely even lingers in the periphery. Perhaps it would be poetic to imagine that its tale is a one that wants to be remembered, understood, and appreciated for what it was: a fleeting, fragile, and fearless endeavor amidst the grandeur of the Himalayas. But not a lot of official documents regarding the airport’s construction exist. And the handful of people who saw operations to this airport are perilously close to death. 

One can imagine the sensation that the construction of such an airport would have made were social media back then.