St Helena Airport receives first passenger jet despite dangerous wind conditions

In 2016, there were rumours that the beleaguered St Helena Airport wouldn’t ever be able to receive passenger planes, but those naysayers have been proven wrong.

The airport, which was dubbed the "world's most useless airport" and a "£285 million white elephant" by a committee in 2016, had been thought of as too dangerous to fly into thanks to treacherous wind conditions which made approach nearly impossible.

That is, up until May 3, when a passenger jet was forced to attempt the journey as the cancellation of two boats left the island isolated. Before this date, the island of St Helena was only able to be reached by mail boat

An Air Link plane carrying 60 passengers landed successfully on its first attempt at the St Helena runway on May 3, marking a great step forward for commercial use of the airport.

St Helena is located in the South Atlantic and has a population of around 4000 people. It's the island where Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte died after his exile in 1821.

Before now, visitors to the island have embarked on a five-day journey by sea from South Africa. It's popular with fishing enthusiasts, hillwalkers and astronomers.

In 2016, test flights to the landing strip were plagued by wind conditions, resulting in the regular commercial flights being unable to operate to the area.

Up until May 3, only 18 flights have successfully landed since the runway was announced a decade ago.