Inside the world’s SMALLEST commercial airport with a painfully short runway surrounded by cliffs and a tiny terminal

PILOTS risk plunging into the ocean when they land at the world’s smallest commercial airport with an alarmingly short runway at the cliff’s edge.

The only airport on the island of Saba functions the small piece of land that holds the title of the shortest commercial airstrip in the world.

Landing at Saba’s Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport is not for the faint of heart and requires not only courage but also impeccable skills.

Often cited as one of the “scariest landings in the world”, tourists reaching the island can be seen wearing ‘I survived the Saba landing’ shirts.

It takes a group of highly qualified and specially trained pilots to control the controls and navigate the plane over steep hills.

Pilots have only 400 meters to stop the plane before it makes a steep descent into the ocean on the other side.

To put things into perspective, Heathrow Airport’s runway is 3,900 meters long.

Taking off from the airport is just as exciting as passengers hold their breath as the plane hurtles towards the cliff.

When the plane reaches the end of the cliff and the runway, there can be a sigh of relief as it takes to the air at the last possible second.

Such a stunt could only be pulled off by an adrenaline junkie, and experienced aviator Captain Roger Hodge is one of them.

Captain Hodge is training future “Top Guns” for WinAir – the only airline operating scheduled flights on the island.

Considering the runway operates without an air traffic control center, that’s probably for the best.

He told CNN: “As a pilot I like going to Saba because you put your experience to work.

“There’s always an adrenaline rush because you’re being watched by passengers and people on the ground, but you just have to fly that machine.”

The first man to ever land on the small airstrip was the ambitious aviator Remy de Haenen.

It is thanks to him that the airport exists when he came up with the idea of building a runway at the spot aptly named Flat Point.

The area was cleared within two weeks and on February 9, 1959 he made the very first landing on the island of Saba.

The entire city was there to witness this historic moment.

James Franklin Johnson, who was eight at the time, told CNN: “Everyone came out, crowds and crowds of people. It was amazing.

“Saba came out of isolation when the plane landed on the island.”

But due to safety concerns, Haenen was not allowed to repeat his risky stunt, and the island would not have a fully functioning airport until 1963.

Today Saba, the smallest territory in the Netherlands, has a population of 1,990 and welcomes just over 9,000 tourists annually.

And the airport acts as a lifeline to the island, transporting locals for medical treatment and bringing in visitors.