Why is it rare for any plane to fly over Tibet?

And Tibet (China) stretching 1.2 million square kilometers, located on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, is such a place. Planes often choose to take a longer detour instead of flying directly over Tibet to ensure safety.

1. Danger of crashing into a mountain

The terrain in Tibet is very high, in addition to Mount Everest higher than 8,000m, there are many other mountain ranges higher than 7,000m. If flying over this area, the plane must fly at an altitude of over 10,000m, then it is easy for many other mountains to be higher than 7,000m.

Tibet is quite large, accounting for one-eighth of the total area of ​​China, but the distance between each airport is relatively long. If the plane really wants to make an emergency landing when it encounters some kind of emergency at high altitude or bad weather conditions, it will not be able to find a backup plan or a nearby airport.

2. Danger of fuel freezing

The air in Tibet is relatively cold, the higher you go, the lower the temperature will be, so when the plane flies at this altitude, there is a risk that the fuel will freeze.

A fuel freeze event can cause an aircraft to fail to start normally, causing great danger, there have been many such cases in history.

3. Risk of altitude sickness

In the event of a successful emergency landing in Tibet, many customers may experience very severe altitude sickness due to lack of oxygen at high altitudes. Altitude sickness is very dangerous because if it is not detected early and has timely treatment measures, it can lead to shock and death.

After considering a wide range of risks, most airlines would not basically choose to fly directly over Tibet because even a small incident could lead to a serious plane crash.

However, with the continuous development of the Tibetan region, there are still airports and aircraft operating in this locality, but only when the weather allows.