Top 10 interesting facts about airports

Airports are not just about decibels of noise, dozens of flashing displays, ridiculously expensive coffee, and crowds of passengers migrating from check-in counters to security checkpoints. These are also devices capable of “sniffing out” explosives, regular collaborating birds, runways laid sometimes in the most unexpected places, and many other curious things. The ten most interesting are in the selection of the omniscient “Subtleties”.

1. The most dangerous in the worldParo airports (Bhutan), Huancho-Irauskin (Saba Island, Netherlands) and Matekane airstrip (Lesotho) are considered. The first is surrounded by five-thousander mountains, and no more than ten pilots in the whole world can land a plane there. And the last two have too short runways: 396 and 400 m, respectively. In addition, in Lesotho, this strip ends with a picturesque cliff.
2. At airports, you can live for more than one year. One of the records belongs to the Iranian Mehran Nasseri, who spent 18 years in the Charles de Gaulle air harbor. Based on his story, Spielberg made the film “Terminal”.
3. Munich Airport works a brewery. The Singapore giant Changi has a cactus garden, a butterfly park, a 40-meter artificial waterfall (the largest in the world), and a rooftop bar and a 12-meter slide slide. Doha's Hamad Airport has a state-of-the-art swimming pool, while Brussels Air Harbor has an equally state-of-the-art mortuary.

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4. Major airports have etamizers– devices that can find out if the passenger was holding something dangerous in his hands. In the morning they are “trained” on specific smells: drugs, explosives, etc. If the security officers consider one of the passengers suspicious, they can ask him to rub a piece of cloth in his hands, which will then be presented to the etamizer. He “smells” if there was contact with something dangerous.
5. Airports in Europe and the United States arrange auctions for the sale of unclaimed items– everything that was not taken by the rightful owners. According to the norms, suitcases with all contents are stored at airports for six months from the date of sending the notification of their location to the owner. After this period, the lost may go under the hammer.
6. Of the animals at airports, not only dogs work. Birds of prey (falcons, hawks) are involved in ornithological services: they scare away pigeons, gulls and other birds. And Lilu, a wonderful pig, works at the San Francisco airport, helping passengers to forget about the stress of flights.
7. Officially, the dirtiest items at the airport are plastic trays in the screening area where you need to put clothes , shoes, etc. A huge number of people touch them every day.

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8. Runways can be laid in the most unusual places< /b>. Seoul's Incheon Airport is an artificial stretch between two islands. On the island of Bara in Scotland, they serve as a shallow bay, and alien to superstition, Australians plan to build a new airport in Western Sydney – on the site of a cemetery.
9. Airport employees, stewardesses and pilots pass through the same doors and frames< /b> as ordinary passengers. No privileges.
10. The largest in areain the world is considered the airport. King Fahd in Saudi Arabia. It covers an area of ​​776 sq. km, which is only 9 sq. km less than the area of ​​the state of Bahrain and 4 times the area of ​​Milan.

What else to read on the topic

• How not to behave at the border at the airport
• Green or red? How not to attract the attention of a customs officer at the airport
• Why at the airport they are asked to turn on the screen of the phone and what will happen if it is discharged

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