An Accident Waiting to Happen? Maho Beach Landings
 

This is a beach in the Netherlands Antilles, St Marteens to be exact. There is a runway for airplanes to land right next to it. Since the runway is short, planes have to land as close to the start of the strip as possible. Eek! :eek:

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/members...-sxmdanger.jpg

I've been there--on that approach, and on that beach. There's one 747 that comes into there from Charles DeGaulle every day, and the bar on that beach runs all kinds of "landing-time" drink specials.

Here's the scariest, lowest approach to that airport (Princess Juliana International) that I've seen:

And here's an Airbus 340 blowing people away on the beach when it pegs it engines for runway roll.

Very cool. I can't believe they let those people stand there and cars drive by... landing gear is going to clip a car at some point.

I wonder has it not done already? That take-off situation is scary!!

that place s now on my list of places to stand at inappropriate moments.

I thought they changed this last year or so after all of these videos went viral...?

There's no changing it, really--the airport is in one of the only places on the island where it can be, and prime beach space isn't going to just get abandoned because an airliner might do a belly-flop there someday.

Here's a link from the Aviation Safety Network. As you can see on the map, there's really nowhere else to put the airport. They had to build up some land on the inland salt pond to extend and modernize the runway in 1997. And note: no accidents ever reported at SXM. So, scary as it seems, the airport has a very solid safety record.

Aviation Safety Network > ASN Aviation Safety Database > Airports > Sint Maarten-Juliana Airport profile

There is another airport equally as scary, that's on the island of Madeira, where the airport runway is built on stilts out over the water. The funny thing is after you've gone through security, in the gate lounge, there is a scale model of the airport with the runway shown. So I guess, some wag put it out there for a joke, figuring that by then it's too late for people to back out.

How is it "an accident waiting to happen"? A long, clear approach with excellent visibility and no obstacles to hit. Because it's at the beach it's inherently more dangerous than an airport in the middle of a city with an approach over neighborhoods and buildings.

It's all just a novelty because it's somewhere you can get that close to the runway and the aircraft taking off. Nothing more.

I dunno... We dont usually have people within 1 metre of the landing gear when it lands. Perhaps that could be a bit more dangerous?

Your the expert.

The fact that people are allowed so close to the landing strip, unfettered, is what makes it so dangerous. Usually when I see runways on approach there's an empty field right before the landing strip.