If we look at the global air traffic map, and we will find something unusual... there are no planes flying over Tibet. Even if we look at live global air traffic map you will find it, regardless of the time we check it, you will find that all the world planes are simply avoiding this huge area and going out the way to fly around it like it's some kind of forbidden zone to travel over or fly through.
And this is not like the middle of the ocean, it is a huge mass of land named Tibet which lies in the southwest part of China and borders India to the west. Nepal to the southwest and Burma and Bhutan to the southeast. Tibet sits on the world's most populated continent, Asia.
So why is this happening...?
There are many reasons for it but before getting into that we need to know the topography of the Tibetan plateau.
The Tibetan plateau in Tibet is the world's largest and highest plateau. It covers around 2499338.53 square kilometres approx. (965,000 Square miles). Which is five times the size of France. Most of the Tibetan plateau lies at an elevation of between 3960m to 4600m approx. (13000 to 15000 feet).
Tibet also known as the roof of the world is bordered by the world's two highest mountain peaks. Mount Everest and The K2. During World War II, flying over Tibet was called flying THE HUMP.
There are just two Airports in Tibetan Plateau. The first airport named XINING CAOJIABAO in Chinese Tibet was built in 1956. And the second Airport named LHASA GONGGAR in the Capital city of Tibet, Lhasa was built a decade later in 1965. Lhasa has a single international flight to Kathmandu while Xining maintains flights to Tokyo, Taipei and Kuala Lumpur.
So it's true that there are flights that fly over the Tibetan Plateau in modern times but almost every International flight from the west to the east or the wise versa will go out of their way to avoid flying over it.
Flying over Tibet presents a problem for the airliners. It ultimately comes down to four primary reasons...
Firstly if there is a medical emergency onboard an aircraft, there are no alternative airfields on which to land.
The second reason for flying over Tibet is a problem of aircraft because of the amount of oxygen the planes carry. Those yellow oxygen masks that drop down in the case of an emergency cabin depressurisation is connected to individual canisters of combustible chemicals stored above each seat.
You are told to pull down your mask because that motion ignites the chemicals which produce the oxygen. Planes have only between 10 and 20 minutes of oxygen, which should be enough for an aircraft to descend to below 3,048m (10,000 feet) where there is breathable air. But most of Tibet lies above 3,048m (10,000 feet) and hence this isn't possible in the vast Tibetan Plateau.
The third reason for flying over Tibet is a problem of aircraft is because of "engine out drift down procedures".
These are the set of instructions that pilots must follow if one of the plane's engines goes out. Modern planes have been designed to fly with the loss of an engine, but the plane must drift down to a lower altitude. This attitude is determined by the gross weight of the aeroplane. Over Tibet, that safer altitude might be lower than that of the ground.
The fourth reason for flying over Tibet is a problem of aircraft is because of the "clean air turbulence" that the airliners face.
↳
↳
This type of turbulence can't be seen or predicted in advance by the pilots. It is caused by eddies (a circular movement) of air created when the airflow is disrupted by the mountains out there. When flown through clean air turbulence can be very destructive to an aircraft.
✌🏻☮✌🏻☮✌🏻☮✌🏻☮✌🏻☮✌🏻☮✌🏻☮✌🏻☮✌🏻☮✌🏻☮✌🏻☮✌🏻
Comments
Post a Comment