A special airport - @ one of the Portugal Island called 'Madeira'
The airport's runway with a length of 2781 meters , which 1000 meters of the runway is supported by 180 pillars , each pillar 50 meters height ( abt 17 floors ), surprisingly , the runway design are for B-747 Look at the cars parked below the runway
In Portugal a special airport - the airport's runway with a length of 2781 meters (9124 ft.), of which 1000 meters (3281 ft.) of the runway is supported by 180 pillars, each pillar 50 meters height (about 17 floors).
Firstly the runway is in the City of Funchal on the Island of Madeira, which is owned by Portugal and lies off the coast of Africa and Portugal.
These next few photos show roughly what a pilot would see as they would be approaching landing at Funchal Airport. Any mistake from the pilot and the whole plane, passengers and all could end up in the drink.
Funchal Airport was originally opened in 1964 and is infamous for it’s runway that is surrounded by high mountains on one side and the ocean on the other.The combination of mountains and ocean, with the runway right in the middle means that the flow of air around the runway is unpredictable. (Air temperature varies over land compared to water, sometimes creating abnormal air currents).
Many pilots had trouble landing on the runway. To make matters worse the runway was originally very short, so some pilots who had trouble getting their planes down in time onto the runway, were then stuck with the problem of running out of runway!
In 1977 a TAP Air Portugal Flight struck problems landing at the airport and slid off the end of the runway. As a result of the accident 125 passengers of 156 on board died, 6 out of the 8 crew also lost their lives. It was at the time the deadliest airplane accident in Portugal. TAP Air Portugal stopped flying Boeing 727 series 200 to the airport after this accident, instead only allowing the smaller 727-100 to land there.
The problems with the runway, is that it is in between the ocean and a mountain and it’s too short. Not much can be done about the mountain or the ocean, but the runway could be made longer, only problem there is a bay of water where it needs to be lengthened. so they reclaimed the bay and extended the runway on top of huge concrete poles! surprisingly, the runway is designed for B-747. You can also see the cars parked below the runway.
Landing at Madeira Airport (Video)
Some Technical Details on the new Runway:
The extension was completed on September 15, 2000.
The total length of the runway is 2,781 metres. (approx 1000 metres of which is the new extension)
Width of Extension: 180 metres
Number of support poles: 180
Each support pole is 3 metres wide and 120 metres long, half of which is below sea level.
For the extension of the new runway the Funchal Airport has won the Outstanding Structures Award, given by International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE). This is considered to be the “Oscar” for engineering structures in Portugal.
