If you want to learn more about the fascinating, isolated island of St Helena, listen to our podcast Extremities. We spent a whole season covering how St Helena works--its economy, its people, its government, and much more: extremitiespodcast.com
@@Wendoverproductions Lol, I'm aware it's in the works, I'm just bugging at every opportunity because it's the only thing holding me back from subscribing. I get 80-90% of my content through my phone, so it's the make or break point for me.
I remember watching a few of Wendovers old videos a number of year back (a few of the ____'s geography problem videos) and thinking 'eh, seems sort of like a simple take on things' and went on my way. Finally circled back and watched some of his newer videos and... holy shit. They're so good. This video here definitely earned my subscription.
Didn't watch the whole thing but it seems the HLE airport was a fail, for the same reason that bridge in Tacoma Narrows, OR, USA fell, namely, the wind. Here in America we also subsidize farmers to live in out of the way places so we're no different.
@@raylopez99 You should finish it, alot of the key benifits are explained in the closing minutes of the documentry. From a personal view, though it hasn't had the most brilliant of starts, I'm directly benifiting from the airport being there. I was able to see my family in 2 days stay two weeks and head back, which would have been impossible before, I'm not alone alot of St Helenians have been able to go home for the first time in years as it is now less of a time requirement to get home. A failure wouldn't deliver that.
@@gerwyngeorge1258 Well that's nice, glad to hear that. I guess some folks in the UK don't mind subsidizing your travel anymore than my country folk mind subsidizing farmers. Still an economic failure however, but so is most of Amtrak (public trains) in the USA.
@@raylopez99 its abit more complicated than that and I don't think this documentry really goes much into enough depth about the islands economics if I'm honest. St Helena has always been a dependency, so has relied heavily to be subsidised by the UK. It had a short period in the 1950s, where it was making a surplus due to the flax industry but that was short lived with the introduction of synthetic fibres, but regardless the island needs to continue to exist its a British terratory, and it needs to be sustained. Making St Helena a more self sustaining terratory has always been a key aim of the local government and its people, but ultimately with the logistics of the islands location and what economic opportunities was available to it, it was always difficult. The airport in conjunction with the introduction of tourism seemed the best long term solution to establish a path towards self sufficienty and improving the livelihoods of local people. It not intended to be a massive short term return like striking oil in the desert, but a gradual catalyst for development. I understand from the perspective of a developed nation (i reside in the UK now) its difficult to imagine these challenges, but I'd say increased visitors is a positive sign.
@@raylopez99 Coming from Vienna/Austria, a city in a socialist democracy, literally everybody and everything in my everyday life is "Subsidized" but yet Vienna consistently ranks No.1 internationally on quality-of-life indicators. I might lack the necessary capitalist understanding but I have the urge to ask: Why does financial substitution and lack of Monetary profit of a public institution with the goal of increasing Quality of live for their people (Speaking of the airport,The airline operates in the green AFAIK) make it a failure?
I love how proud they are of their little airport!! It's not the aesthetic marvel that most Airports are, but these people are so proud of what they have accomplished, and for good reason. I personally have dreamed of going to St. Helena for no other reason than it is an interesting an inconspicuous place. Now I can. I love seeing how happy these people are with their accomplishment. Thank you Wendover for making this awesome Documentary.
This was REALLY good. I didn’t realize how invested I was until they showed the tabloid headlines calling it the most useless airport and I got really sad and defensive.
42:22 "The Christmas 2019 season is bringing something promising - sold out flights." Yeah, well, just wait another few months before you get your hopes up too high.
When I worked in Nigeria & Angola, I often needed to travel to Brazil. However, there was only 1 Airline that seemed to go directly & that was TAAG out of Angola...not the best & very difficult to get flights onto. One could go to S.Africa, however, that was always at least an additional 10-12 hours. Flying from Nigeria (& indeed, probably the rest of West Africa), the only ways to Brazil were through Europe...& once through Abu Dhabi (40+ hours, 16 of which went the wrong way). Perhaps St. Helena could play a role in linking up Africa & Brazil. The question about the commercial viability to Recife seems like something that could be overcome by perhaps going a longer route to Sao Paulo or Rio. The type of targeted passengers might be someone like me - a contract worker who rotates in & out of Africa every few weeks. Additionally, there are a lot of Brazilians that go to Angola, Mozambique & S. Africa. Maybe St. Helena can play a role in improving ways to link the 2 continents.
Most definitely, they should stop concentrating on tourism (not entirely neglecting though). Business is key. Brazil - South Africa could become a strong link with St. Helena as a frequent touch down. To make South Americans feel welcome, you need to improve your Portuguese language skills. Start to put signs up in Portuguese, offer bread & breakfast in Portuguese. Angola by the way is also a Portuguese speaking country, so yes, teach your kids at school.
They'd almost be doing their own small scale imitation of an Icelandair or Aer Lingus if they did that - operating from the middle of an ocean corridor to bridge the lands on either side.
I guess y'all weren't paying attention about the limitations of plane size due to wind shear issues causing operational profitability issues for airlines
@@gw6667 Yep. The max range of a 737 MAX is about 3500 miles too, less than ideal for a 4000 mile round trip to Receife, especially if it cannot land in St Helena.
Holy shit. I can't believe it. Can we all take a moment to appreciate the generosity of this channel for offering such insanely good educational quality content for free
Kevin D I know RMS Saint Helena was decommissioned in 2018, but I don't know whether another ship serves the island for cargo. I agree, that wasn't clear.
RMS St Helena was the last ocean-going Royal Mail Ship and is one of only two remaining passenger-cargo liners in the world. It has been sold in 2018 and renamed MNG Tahiti by the new owner, a security firm that will use this vessel as floating armoury for anti-piracy services. You can track the current position on the maritime traffic web site by entering the name or the IMO number 8716306
I worked on embraers from 2017-2019 and during that found out about this flight. I was impressed over the route being so remote. Thanks for the finer details about how it came to be.
I want to thank you sooooo much. I woke up sick this morning and dealing with anxiety. I scrolled through you tube and Everything just made me feel worse. I came across this video. The last video I would normally ever watch. As I watched and listened to the whole video, the story along with your voice and the great way you tell the story has calmed me down and now I'm feeling alot better. This Island and its people sound amazing. Thank you again. Peace.
thanks for uploading this! This is a very well-done documentary! I learned a lot about the island of Saint Helena! Best of luck to its people, its airport and its tourism and economy!
Great content. Was rooting for the airport’s success, and I’m glad to see that they’re on their way to it. Hoping that the current situation hasn’t impacted their lives too adversely.
Wendover, thank you for labelling the airport as the most useful airport in the world, contrary to what big medias & tabloids said. This is heartwarming.
That one life saved 37:35 makes this whole airport worth it... not to mention every other potential one in the future. Id like to visit this place, I'm going t check the cost of flights and see if I can add it to a trip I wanted to do in Africa anyways. I just hope they let me fly my drone there and its not too windy for drone flying... I can imagine there is some incredible views here!
Unsubtle Major Dictator it could be seen that way. But since they didn’t build it to save one kid, and was already built - I think it’s okay with that lens to look through to say it makes the airport worth it. I know what you mean, I hope what I meant also comes across.
Unsubtle Major Dictator the USA 🇺🇸 has the largest GDP, it also has the most billionaires and millionaires and top 4 richest men in the world and has the only company worth 1 trillion dollars ( Apple Inc)
Unsubtle Major Dictator true first billionaire in the world was also American, he’s rather famous as well his name was Rockefeller. The United States of America 🇺🇸 is also the easiest country to get rich in. You could talk about China 🇨🇳 accept China has 10x the amount of people the USA does literally meaning that the average American makes 6.5 times as much as the average Chinese. The USA 🇺🇸 still has a larger economy than China at 22 trillion ( 2019) and china’s 2nd at 15 trillion ( 2019). The USA 🇺🇸 still makes 7 trillion dollars a year more than China. Russia’s GDP is 1.8 trillion a year that means that the Americans makes 19.7 trillion a year more than Russia 🇷🇺 the Americans do spend the most on their military at 740 billion( 2020) but they use just 2 percent of their GDP Russia spends 43 billion a year but they spend 3.3 percent of their GDP if the Americans also spent 3.3 percent they would be spending 1.2 trillion a year on their military.
I've taken that flight over to Sain Helena, it's such a nice place but since you have to stay there for a week, it gets a little boring but I don't regret going, not even for one second.
Airport of Castellón (Valencia, Spain), which has not had a single flight for about 4 years due to being built by a company "friend of the government" that earned a solid amount of money collected via taxes: Am I a joke to you?
It seems so cozy. I was just looking at it on google maps, and there are so many nice little cottage houses with a ton of land nicely tucked away along the tree lines. It would be so comfy waking up, seeing the forest and the mountains, but knowing that you’re still surrounded on all sides by thousands of miles of ocean.
I've been watching your videos for years, always enjoying them, and I clicked on this somewhat randomly to watch while eating. However, I almost screamed when i realized it was about st Helena! My mother's family is from the island, and myself being from the US it's so rare for anyone to know what/where the island is, let alone to go and make a documentary about it! Back in 2005 i took the RMS to the island to go visit family, and it was an experience I'll never forget. It's truly one of the most isolated places in the entire world and getting an airport was something a lot of saints never thought would happen. Thank you for doing this documentary, Sam- and huge props for actually pronouncing the name of the island correctly!
I was born on Saint Helena and have sadly never been back. After 27 years though my mum was able to visit her parents and prior to that my granddads life was saved thanks to a medivac. Thank you for a fair documentary 💚
Had the pleasure of visiting St Helena last year, it's an absolutely amazing place. It's far away from EU and the US, but if you live in South Africa for example, this is a place you definitely should go visit.
You do such awesome work! I’m subscribed to you on several accounts over many devices for business reasons! So happy you did a full length documentary! It was awesome! Beautiful work!! Thank you for all you do and all it takes to do what you do! Bravo!
British Tabloids are cancer and should be all arrested. They are still going on about Diana decades on her from death in full on shit like "SECRETS EXPOSED".
The word "tabloid" in the UK doesn't have the same connotation that it does in the US. It just describes the printing format, which tend to just be a single fold and distinguished from the "broadsheet" format. That said, there _are_ definitely "tabloid journalism" papers which focus on more sensationalist stories with what we might, today, consider "clickbait" headlines.
@@StarkRG In the UK the literal meaning of "tabloid" refers to the format, but is generally used disparagingly about the content. Some quality papers now use this smaller format too though. I've no idea what it means in the USA.
@@evaluateanalysis7974 here in the US it means the same thing as the figurative sense you described for the UK: sensationalist, trivial, and bullshit content
Before this video I never actually listened to those curiosity stream and nebula ads of yours, just tried to skip over them. But after seeing such incredible level of content, far better than most documentaries you see on television or Netflix, I'm gonna get a subscription to curiosity stream and nebula. Bravo maestro.
I was so pleased when the postponement of PA's visit was mentioned. I wonder how many buildings, projects, venues etc., that were officially opened by him, have taken down, or covered up their commemorative plaques?
I'm in the roller coaster enthusiast community. We know this shit. *Ride stops for safety reasons or because some guest on it is ill or has his phone out. Media: "Rollercoaster gets stuck!! EVACUATION!! Are roller coasters safe?!?"
@@TripleTSingt remember the time they use tape on an aircraft and people goes nut like its gonna fall apart like lego? Turns out they used industrial aircraft duct tape. Who would have thought right? Gosh dang news channels just want to land some title.
Thanks for the history and introduction to Saint Helena. Looking forward to the full documentary. Charming and magical place that I hope doesn’t get spoiled by tourism. I love the Observation Deck crowd!
Thanks to this Channel. Its so fabulous of them to bring such lesser known yet interesting and informative series to the door step of millions across the World. Thankyou Wendover Productions.
Bill wanted a minute to get on film, and the Exec did not indulge him. That was a bit sad. Someone do an interview with him! Bill! I want to know what you are all about my friend!
I don't know who wrote that closing statement but, wow, what an inspiring message to close with and at the same time carried a tone on power and confidence. Great job by the way. This is the kind of stuff people should be wanting to watch. Its a unique story and is informative about a mode of travel we all use giving us more details using this micro example and it also covers economies in growth. And seeing a populous that is its it own way frozen in time, in the best ways, makes this whole documentary easy and enjoyable to watch. Thanks for making it guys and gals, and thank you curiosity stream for paying for it.
Great job - didn't expect content like this on YT! I would recommend people check out the amazing story of the mammoth engineering job that was the airport build. Go Saints!!
Every time I see an Embraer airplane doing a so noble and significant job like connecting these people with the world, I feel so proud of Brazil's often underrated engineering.
E jets are probably the best regional jet used by U.S. carriers. I wish Delta would use the 190, but theyre supposed to be using the Cseries to our airport. JetBlue uses the 190, but we will see.
I'd definitely recommend listening to his podcast, Extremities, he has a lot more information on the history of the island, the episode on Napoleon's time on the island was my favorite personally
This video needs a follow up, with the effects of corona on its future path. And perhaps the viability of the electric revolution on the future of its flights as a new business model. And could Helena be a great test ground, for the future of travel to the moon and Mars?
Wat a fascinating documentary. Just looked at the charts of St Helena and seemed that they renamed the runway to 01 and 19, what is not uncommon in the Aviation industry. I also looked at the site of the airport and see that sometimes they get a few flights more. Thank you for this amazing story.
I'll be honest, I usually don't really like the traditional documentary format. It can feel so slow and bloated. I was ready to hit that 1.5x as soon as I saw the length, but then I just got so sucked in. This is a REALLY quality film, the pacing is just as dense as a normal Wendover video
I love this video. I am a aircraft enthusiast . I am so glad for the people of St. Helena , but i hope one day, they are able to attract more tourism and therefore more flights into the island bringing economic growth to the island. I hope one day I can visit this island and contribute a bit to their economy ! Great documentary !
You two emo wimps should remember that this airport cost 100s millions of dollars. It is a wasteful vanity project, a obscene misallocation of taxpayers money!
Great Documentary! It opened my interest completely to one day on my further life to visit that island and see for myself the changes the tool (airport) brought on future years to the island interests.
With respect to covid: I was just visiting their gov homepage and it states „We wish to reassure you that at this time there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 on the Island.“ stay safe everyone
Hey, I hope Covid HELPS these isolated places by making things way more remote friendly. Remote personal assistants are in demand now, I know if I had kids or something paying $13 an hour to have all my appointments and odd jobs coordinated would be hella worth it.
@@crazyrobots6565 only because every Karen and boomer expects video calls constantly. You can do basically everything that comes with being a DPA with a 128k modem and a landline phone if nobody is a tard who expects zoom calls. And you need to spend money to make money.
What a brilliant video. I’ve worked with Saints down the Falklands. Great people. So happy to see they now have a functional airport they’ve longed for for decades
I loved the documentary. It showed all details of the history. It was clearly narrated. The interviews were very well done. The music perfect. In a nutshell: everything was great!
Wow! Fascinating documentary for sure. I was reminded of my time as a prosecutor in an extremely remote US county. We only had court in session once a month - th judge would travel from a neighboring county. For that day, the courthouse resembled many others - lawyers, clients, sheriffs’ deputies, etc. The remainder of the month the courtroom sat empty, ready for the scene to report itself.
I am in awe of your researching skills, and being able to put everything together in such a coherent story. People do not realize the amount of smarts and vision and intelect it takes to put something like this together. Some of these are damn near NOVA quality.
Silly comment. All papers have news, all papers have opinion, all papers twist and slant things. The Mail is no worse or better than any other. Sometimes it has excellent articles and sometimes it prints rubbish. There is no British newspaper that is 100% reliable.
@@jonb6417 They are not tabloids. They don't do massive sensationalist headlines, they just do normal headlines. You might have a different opinion though, and you might fall somewhere else on the political spectrum, so I'm going to agree to disagree.
What a great documentary! I'm curious how St. Helena fared through the pandemic. Hopefully it was only a pause to their growth in tourism, and that things are getting back on track now.
It will open like it was supposed to be in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, don't know if there was a date for 2019. But I highly doubt it will open this year, since it was delayed so often
I'm sure that if a documentary were made in light of the story of the Berlin airport, exactly the same sentiment would come up as this video has. The same societal demands for horrible news that nicknamed this airport as the world's most useless airport are the ones catered by the media reporting on the failure of the Berlin airport. How the fuck do you miss wind sheer when building an airport? Cities model airflow when building skyscrapers, what engineer thought "naw, let's slap an airport on that rock in the middle of an ocean and just ignore those weird mountains - I'm sure that won't hurt us". It's easy to look at that failure in hindsight and shake your head, because you just spent 45 minutes watching someone explain it to you in language a 10 year old could follow, but at the time, it just wasn't seen as a possibility back then. Same with the hurdles the Berlin airport went through - it's a different side of the same coin. The hypocrisy of laughing at the Berlin airport, one of Germany's most ambitious construction projects, while praising the airport that forgot to think about the fucking _air_ is frustrating to see.
@@h8GW its more than that. The airport failed so many fire and air vent tests and so many other things weren't up to code and also costs were getting so expensive and all in all, it won't be done anytime soon and at this point, it's probably going to be abandoned completely for good if it doesn't gain ground soon
I am from Cape Town, I have just added this beautiful island to my bucket list. Ive heard about it, but never actually seen how it is and how the people there live. Great documentary
When I fly from London to Honduras I make a Stopover in Mexico City to change planes. The 2 hour flight on the Embraer from Mexico City to San Pedro Sula is always my favourite part of the trip.
Well that is French Foreign Ministry property (? Diplomatic immunity) so he doesn't have to escape! The UK might leave the EU but the EU can't leave UK 🤣 Reminds me of of Death in Paradise.
The idea of direct flight to Recife is not a bad one. That airport has regular direct flights to the USA and Portugal. Moreover, if St Helena considers becoming a tax-free hub for UK products, it would be flooded with Brazilian tourists.
This dude like Dwight lol “I’m basically the CEO’s right hand man” and then 2 minutes later he’s like well I don’t have security even though I’m up there 😂😂
Hey guys, great video! I noticed the parts about weather and diversions, decision points, etc. Those are all normal day to day items for just about any airport here in Alaska. I didn't know St. Helena existed and now I want to go there!
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