Kai Tak International Airport Was the Most Dangerous Airports in the World.

If you ever fly over Hong Kong, you may notice an unnatural rectangular strip of land jutting into Kowloon Bay. This strip of land was once one of the most dangerous landing strips in the world, known as Kai Tak International Airport. Although Kai Tak has been known as an airfield since 1924, it was only in 1958 that its most striking feature—a 2,550-meter runway extending into Kowloon Bay—was built through land reclamation. Since then, the airport has undergone numerous modifications and extensions.

Its location, jutting into Kowloon Bay, south of a prominent mountain range and surrounded by one of the most densely populated areas in the world, made every approach extremely perilous. To add to this, poor weather conditions and bad visibility often made the approach even more dangerous. So much so that Kai Tak Airport is still considered one of the most dangerous airports in history.

However, as air traffic increased and Kowloon continued to develop, the Hong Kong government was forced to find a more suitable location for a new airport. On July 6, 1998, Chek Lap Kok took over the functions of Kai Tak as Hong Kong’s international airport.