The mountainous terrain surrounding the small airport forces an approach that's anything but head on, resulting in a fast decent and a sharp turn prior to lining up with the runway. To be more accurate, the actual landing distance of runway 02 is only 5442 feet with an approach that requires pilots to utilize everything their training didn't prepare them for. Add to that an extremely short runway (runway 02), one of the world's shortest, that's merely 6,112 feet in length (LAX features roughly 3,000 additional feet for large aircraft) and you've got a recipe for armrest-death-gripping, butt-clenching, nervous excitement. Toncontín International Airport, located 6 km (3.72 miles) from downtown Tegucigalpa, Honduras, has long been considered to be one of the most difficult, dangerous landings for any large commercial airliner thanks in part to its unusual mountainous location. We think the Toncontín Airport in Honduras might actually beat that. A night landing on the moving deck of an aircraft carrier has always been regarded as the most difficult landing approach for aviators.
