Lukla Airport - Planespotting

Today we did a bit of planespotting; in fact our lodge is very close to the airstrip, we can see the planes landing and taking off from our room. The lodge owner has some strong connections with the airport, he seems to be organising air tickets, re-scheduling flights, we have seen him moving quite freely in the airport, being quite familiar with the staff. It would appear he's got a helicopter that he rents out. He's also got a radio tuned in to the control tower, he then tells his customers when their flight is due, listening in to the control tower radio chatter.

Below is one fine landing example: the SitaAir plane 9N-AHA. Note to self: don't book SitaAir in future!

****************** Update 28/09/2012 this aircraft has crashed during initial ascent, just outside Kathmandu, en route to Lukla . Details of accident click here *****************

 

And the take off wasn't that much better, it overran the marker by a bit.

 

Here is a slightly better landing, Agni Air 9N-AIE

 

There are 3 Tara Air, 2 Agni Air and 1 Sita Air planes doing the KTM-Lukla route and they fly back and forth as many times as needed, weather permitting. We were due to fly out at 9:30 on the third flight on a Agni Air plane. Unfortunately, the control tower in Kathmandu had a technical problem and the planes were delayed out of Kathmandu. By the time it was our turn, it started to rain heavily in Kathmandu and they suspended the flights. It cleared at around 2 pm in Kahmandu but by then a thunderstorm in Lukla closed the airport and the last two flights were cancelled. So it was back to our lodge, oficially called the Khumbu resort - I just call it the control tower - for another night. We are now due to fly out on an early flight, 7am or 8am, so it's an early start: 5:30 breakfast for 6am to the airport. The weather is expected to be good first thing in the morning so fingers crossed.