This is the tense moment a small passenger plane touches down on the tiny airstrip on the Caribbean island of Saba. And the pilot has less than 400m to stop before a shear drop into the ocean
WOULD you risk landing in the island of Saba, where the airport runway is one of the shortest in the world?
Footage has emerged of the tiny stretch of runway pilots have to work with when flying into the only airport on the Dutch Caribbean island - and it's just 400m in length.
recently shared a clip of one of the treacherous landings at Saba's Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport.
The nail-biting footage shows how the pilots must navigate their plane over steep hills at one end of the runway, before coming to a stop in less than 400m to avoid a shear drop into the ocean at the opposite end.
The plane in the footage takes just 10 seconds from the time it first touches down to when it begins turning off the runway.
To put the runway in perspective, Heathrow Airport's northern runway is 3,900m in length.
While Heathrow may welcome aircraft significantly larger than the small island nation, Saba's airstrip is still just one tenth of the size.
Due to its tiny size, the Saba's airport can only accommodate small aircraft and helicopters.
Considering the airstrip operates without an air traffic control centre though, that is probably for the best.
The smallest territory of the Netherlands, Saba has a population of 1,990 and welcomes just over 9,000 tourists each year.
The majority of flights coming into the island nation are from North America, as well as neighbouring Dutch islands.
Travellers can also fly direct to Saba from mainland Netherlands.
While Saba's airport is home to one of the smallest commercial runways in the world, it isn't quite short enough to claim the overall title as the world's tiniest airstrip.
That honour goes to Out Skerries airfield in Shetland, Scotland, which is just 370m in length.
Lesotho's Matekane airstrip in Africa is just as treacherous as Saba's, with its 400m runway ending in a 600m drop.
