Extreme Airport Africa

8x60 - SMITHSONIAN

SERIES PRODUCER: ALEX GOWER-JACKSON

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: GREG CHIVERS, CHRISTIAN BROADHURST & NICK HEAD

In the wilds of Southern Africa, aviation takes over where roads don’t go. Extreme Airport Africa brings you into the world of high-octane, high-risk bush flying where pilots brave rough runways, wild fires and wild animals. Season One takes you behind the scenes at Southern Africa’s major airports, into the cockpits of airliners and heavy lift helicopters, and over the wilds of Kruger National Park and the Okavango Delta. 

Out in the bush, scientists take to the air to search for lost elephants, pilots land on dirt airstrips while baboons invade, and snakes threaten to close a major airport. Even in Johannesburg, the main aviation hub for Southern Africa, nature still makes its presence felt, as staff battle flocks of birds overrunning the runways and pilots fly through some of the most intense storms in the world. Aviation doesn’t get any more intense than this.