In keeping with a theme of amazing approaches, check out the latest we dug up. This one is to a small airport in the remote western fjords region in Iceland, in a Fokker 50 turboprop operated by Air Iceland.
This airport, Isafjordur in Iceland, (IFJ) is not for the faint of heart. You land on a runway that is positioned on one side of a fjord, which commands a u-turn that essentially wraps up the base leg and final leg in one turn. There is no time to fly base – it’s downwind direct to final!
The airport serves the largest town in the Westfjords region of Iceland. It is only 8 feet (2 meters) above sea level and runways 08/26 are 4500′ long (1500 meters). There are definitely no right turns after departure from 08, and no left turns from 26. An expedited left turn is required right after departure from 08. Looks like an airport you wouldn’t want to go into on a day of low visibility, which probably happens often in this area considering it’s in the steep fjords right next to the ocean.
The aircraft in this video is a Fokker 50 turboprop, the model came into service in 1985 and is currently out of production. Iceland Air has six of these airplanes in service.
See another amazing approach from Milford Sound, New Zealand and an instrument approach to Queensland, also New Zealand. It seems like airports in the fjords make for the best approach videos.
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