little_tippler

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!

__________________
Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918

ratbastid

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.

Charlatan

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.

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

little_tippler

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

__________________
Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918

lotsofmagnets

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

__________________
mother nature made the aeroplane, and the submarine sandwich, with the steady hands and dead eye of a remarkable sculptor.
she shed her mountain turning training wheels, for the convenience of the moving sidewalk, that delivers the magnetic monkey children through the mouth of impossible calendar clock, into the devil's manhole cauldron.
physics of a bicycle, isn't it remarkable?

Jinn

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

__________________
"I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel

ratbastid

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

Lucifer

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.

__________________
I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
- Job 30:29

1123, 6536, 5321

tricks

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.

__________________
People Are Stupid. People can be made to believe any lie, either
because they want it to be true or because they fear that it is.

Draigan

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.

KirStang

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.