Abandoned buildings are interesting: we’ve posted about abandoned mansions, schools, hospitals, and even entire villages. But who would’ve ever thought there was this many abandoned international airports? Well, it’s true that some airports outgrow their locations and are rebuilt in larger areas, and others were just a bad idea from the start. While unused airports are often demolished or repurposed, it can take quite some time before that happens. Meanwhile, there are diverse stories surrounding these erstwhile facilities, like the notorious Kai Tak airport in Hong Kong.
No list of abandoned international airports (or non-abandoned ones, for that matter) would be complete without Hong Kong’s notorious Kai Tak, which from 1925 until 1998 scared the living daylights out of nervous flyers as their planes descended through the island’s mountains and skyscrapers. Ranked as the sixth most dangerous airport in the world by the History Channel, landing on the famous Runway 13 involved passing over the densely populated area of Western Kowloon then a sharp, 47 degree turn at a checkerboard marker on in the hills above the airport. If all went according to plan, airliners would level out at just 140 feet before touching down, in a manoeuver known to pilots as the “Hong Kong Turn” and to passengers as the “Kai Tak Heart Attack”.
So what happened to the airport after it closed? Find that out, as well as the stories of the other airports, at Urban Ghosts. -via the Presurfer
(Image credit: WiNG)