The Beach Where You Get Blown Away
The Princess Juliana airport is a place where you can be literally blown away by the attractions but also by the planes that come dangerously close to the beaches. The airport is located on the St. Martin island, being one of the smallest landmass in the world shared by two nations. One side of the country is governed by the French, while the other makes up an quasi-autonomous nation under the name of Netherlands Antilles, part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The airport is famous for one of the shortest landing strips. With only 2,180 metres/7,152 ft, this size is barely enough for a jet to properly land. When larger planes are about to land, they come extremely close to the beach, passing 10-20 meters (30-60 ft.) over relaxing tourists on Maho Beach. Despite this, no incidents have been reported. Presently, only Corsairfly, a French airline, operates weekly flights in the area.
The following pictures might have been dismissed as photoshopped, but they are real. The Princess Juliana Airport’s official website has all the details regarding this unique beach.
source: pjiae.com, wikipedia; photo credits: Justin Cederholm, Art Brett, Jordi Griffe
March 6th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Sounds fascinating. I wonder how people stay under those planes when they come in to land because it does seem like it would be hard to guage if the plane is headed towards the landing strip or the beach!