Why Hasn't Tibet Been Passed By A Plane? Check The Reason Here

Illustration of airplanes (Pixabay)

YOGYAKARTA Airplanes often avoid Tibetan highlands on their flight routes. There are a number of reasons why Tibet is not traversed by aircraft, one of which is because it has extreme geographical conditions.

Please note, Tibet is the highest region in the world, with an average height of more than 4,500 meters above sea level (masl). In the Tibetan highlands, there are also Himalayan Mountains, where Mount Everest is located.

This area is always avoided by pilots when flying planes due to low geographical and population factors. Despite having international airports in Lhasa and Xining, commercial flights across Tibet are very limited.

Pilots will generally avoid this flight path, although passing through Tibet will be more efficient.

Adapting the Simple Flying page, the following are a number of reasons why Tibet is not traversed by airplanes.

The plane evades the Tibetan region as it avoids the dangers of turbulence that often occurs in mountainous areas.

Flying in a mountain bag like in Tibet, creates a higher risk of turbulence and is difficult to avoid, especially during bad weather.

Turbulence that occurs in this area not only endangers passengers, but also complicates handling if an emergency situation occurs. This becomes less ideal for commercial flights.

Flying over mountainous areas, such as in Tibet, could increase the risk of jet fuel freezing due to low temperatures.

Although jet fuel has a low freezing spot, which is around -47 derjat celsius for Jet A1), long-range flights over this cold region can cause problems, such as ice crystals formed in fuel.

This kind of incident was experienced by British Airways who flew from China to London, England in January 2008.

At that time, ice crystals clog the engine and cause an emergency landing. This shows how important it is to keep fuel temperatures for flight safety.

The Tibetan region is not passed by planes because it has a fairly high terrain, with an average of over 14,000 feet (about 4.26 kilometers aka km). This condition makes it difficult for planes to descend in an emergency, such as cabin decompression.

Although aircraft flew at a cruising altitude of 30,000 feet (about 9.14 km) to 42,000 feet (about 12.8 km), in the event of an emergency, they had to descend to an altitude of 10,000 feet (about 3.04 km) to get enough oxygen.

Since the Tibetan region is in the highlands and the number of diversion airports in the region is limited, airlines choose not to fly over Tibet for security reasons.

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