Beach Landings and Takeoffs

A popular pastime in St. Maarten is going to the beach to watch the planes takeoff and land. Like most Caribbean islands, the runway is just off the sand and visitors to St. Maarten often stand at the edge of the road so the jet blast will blow them back into the water. What we saw was a lot of people getting sand blasted, so we passed on this activity.

St. Barth’s has one of the shortest runways and steepest approaches in the world.

While we were having lunch at La Plague, one plane missed the runway and started its landing on the beach. Note the man lying on the sand – he was standing seconds before this photo was taken.