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IF you weren't a nervous flyer before, you certainly will be after you see how precarious the world's most hair-raising runways are.

From airstrips perched atop a cliff to a runway which is made completely of ice, these are the airports you'd be better off avoiding.

 One of the world's most terrifying airports involves a descent which is completely over water
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One of the world's most terrifying airports involves a descent which is completely over waterCredit: Alamy
 St Maarten's airport forces planes to skim over the heads of beach-going tourists to make a landing
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St Maarten's airport forces planes to skim over the heads of beach-going tourists to make a landingCredit: Alamy

Travel agency Globehunters has rounded up 13 of the world's most terrifying airports to reveal the most nail-biting landings on the planet.

Included in the list is Scotland's Barra airport, a tiny operation consisting of three runways marked out in sand - with no tarmac in sight.

Equally terrifying is the coastal Princess Juliana International Airport in St Maarten, which features a daunting and disorienting approach over water.

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Meanwhile, pilots coming in to land at Greenland's Narsaruaq Airport are forced to make a complete U-turn on their approach after flying up a narrow fjord.

The airport is so dangerous to navigate that night-time flights are banned, and passengers can expect to experience massive turbulence on every approach.

However, that landing seems easy compared to the approach to Gibraltar International Airport, which boasts a short runway hemmed in by the ocean on either side.

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And a nail-biting landing is guaranteed at Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Nepal, which features a runway carved into the hills surrounding Mount Everest.

The runway ends abruptly, with a 2,000ft drop facing pilots who misjudge the tiny landing strip's length.

Equally terrifying is Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport in the Caribbean, which features one of the world's shortest runways perched atop a cliff.

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However, the most terrifying of all is surely the Ice Runway in Antartica's McMurdo Sound.

The clue is in the name with the Ice Runway, where pilots risk breaking through the ice if they make too heavy a landing.

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We recently revealed what goes on in the secret rooms you've probably never noticed on aeroplanes.

And we also revealed the reason why aeroplanes are almost always painted white.