Planes for St. Helena | God's World News
Planes for St. Helena
Jet Balloon
Posted: December 18, 2017

It’s just a normal, peaceful day on St. Helena Island. The ocean laps. Dolphins leap in the water. People browse markets for food. Then a loud engine breaks the quiet. An airplane is landing!

St. Helena is one of the most remote places in the world. The tiny island measures less than 50 square miles. It is isolated in the South Atlantic Ocean between Africa and South America. Before now, people could get here only on a boat—the Royal Mail Ship St. Helena. The boat made trips every three weeks. Arriving newcomers sometimes got a sinking feeling in their stomachs as the ship pulled away from the island. “Oh no,” they thought. “I’m in the middle of nowhere. And I’m STUCK!”

People have talked about building an airport on St. Helena for about 80 years. But actually constructing one was a huge struggle. The land was too rocky. People feared the new airport would hurt endangered species. Finally, they found a good spot for construction. After it was built, they found dangerous winds kept planes from flying. Soon the project got a nickname: the “World’s Most Useless Airport.”

But now St. Helena travelers are much less stuck than they used to be. The airport is up and running. A plane took off from Johannesburg, South Africa, in October. Seventy-eight people rode aboard. “Thank you for being part of this historical event,” the pilot said. After six hours, it became the first commercial flight ever to land on the volcanic island.

The airport isn’t useless for Saints (the nickname for people who live on St. Helena). If more visitors can travel to St. Helena, Saints can make money from tourism. They can show off their giant tortoise named Jonathan. He is said to be 185 years old. Visitors can also climb Jacob's Ladder, a 699-step outdoor staircase. But here’s St. Helena’s real claim to fame. The French general Napoleon Bonaparte died there in 1821. Visitors to the island can still see his house!