UK lawmakers lambast new St. Helena airport in South Atlantic
An influential UK parliamentary committee has described as “a fiasco” the building of a $355m airport on the remote UK South Atlantic possession of St. Helena. The airport has been discovered to be unusable to commercial flights by wind shear on the approach. The tiny island, some 1,100 miles off the coast of southwest Africa, has hitherto had a mail boat that visits once every 3 weeks as its sole means of communication with the outside world. The island’s economy in recent years has been faltering and building an airport was deemed to be the best way to stimulate both the general economy and tourism to the island. However, early trial flights discovered wind shear problems on the northerly approach to Runway 20; aircraft landing from the southerly approach (Runway 02) have to cope with a habitual tailwind. <br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2016-12-21/general/uk-lawmakers-lambast-new-st-helena-airport-in-south-atlantic
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UK lawmakers lambast new St. Helena airport in South Atlantic
An influential UK parliamentary committee has described as “a fiasco” the building of a $355m airport on the remote UK South Atlantic possession of St. Helena. The airport has been discovered to be unusable to commercial flights by wind shear on the approach. The tiny island, some 1,100 miles off the coast of southwest Africa, has hitherto had a mail boat that visits once every 3 weeks as its sole means of communication with the outside world. The island’s economy in recent years has been faltering and building an airport was deemed to be the best way to stimulate both the general economy and tourism to the island. However, early trial flights discovered wind shear problems on the northerly approach to Runway 20; aircraft landing from the southerly approach (Runway 02) have to cope with a habitual tailwind. <br/>
