You probably didn’t know this but airplanes are not allowed to fly over Tibet. Yes, that is a thing.
“Why?” you might ask. Well, it’s not because there are some unexplained supernatural shenanigans taking place like in the infamous Bermuda Triangle. Rather, it’s due to the Tibetan Plateau, otherwise known as the “Roof of the World”.
The gigantic Himalayan mountains (the highest in the world) reach elevations over 20,000 feet. This poses a problem for commercial airplanes because the highest cruising altitude that’s allowed is between 28,000 to 35,000 feet. If a plane loses an engine and it’s forced to descend, the chances of it crashing into a mountain are dangerously high. Not to mention, Tibet is mostly uninhabited which also makes it a terrible place for an emergency landing.
The other problem with flying over Tibet has to do with the oxygen masks. Each mask only has about twenty minutes’ worth of oxygen. So if cabin pressure is lost and the plane has to come down to a lower altitude, it again runs the risk of crashing into the sides of a mountain – it just can’t be done safely in the Himalayas.
You probably weren’t planning on flying over Tibet anytime soon but now you’ve got some pretty cool intel on the region! If you’d like to learn more about the Roof of the World, check out the video below.
Also, if ya wanna find out more about just how big Tibet really it (and hear it being compared to William Dafoe’s manly parts) click right here.
