Thousands of planes fly overhead at any given time — but none are likely to cruise over Tibet.
On platforms like Flightradar24, which constantly maps commercial flights across the world, the air traffic gap over Tibet is unmissable, as most aircrafts avoid flying directly over the autonomous region unless they need to land at one of its five airports.
Known as “the roof of the world,” the sky-scraping mountaintops of the Himalayas — which are also home to Earth’s tallest peak, Mt. Everest — make the Tibetan Plateau treacherous to fly over.
According to Travel + Leisure, this is because the mountains in Tibet, which span approximately 970,000 square miles or about four times the size of Texas, are too tall.
While a plane’s cruising altitude typically falls between 30,000 and 42,000 feet, the elevation of the snow-capped peaks can reach 14,800 feet and prove dangerous should the aircraft need to descend rapidly.
In the case of cabin decompression, the pilot would need to reach an altitude with more oxygen, which could be as low as 8,000 feet, the outlet reports. To descend that low is not a viable option should the aircraft be flying over the mountain range.
Mountains can also create turbulence, according to National Geographic. “While some air passes smoothly over and onward, some air masses crowd against the mountains themselves, left with nowhere to go but up,” the outlet reported.
“These ‘mountain waves’ can propagate as wide, gentle oscillations into the atmosphere, but they can also break up into many tumultuous currents, which we experience as turbulence.”
Recent reports have suggested turbulence aboard flights is becoming more common, advising that seat belts be worn at all times to avoid injury.
One Korean Air flight earlier this month encountered such severe turbulence that personal items and food were flung across the cabin and those not wearing a seatbelt “shot up into the air,” resulting in minor injuries.
