B-747 landing at Sint Maarten

"David Hartung" schreef in bericht
. ..
Herman wrote:
The first picture is from Airliners.Net but I want to share it with the
NG.

KLM has a daily flight from Amsterdam Schiphol to Sint Maarten so you
would think the pilots know the landing.

This one (PH-BFG) came in a bit low (my guess is about 10 m) and was
lucky to miss the fence.
Look at the man in the white shirt ducking. The guy in the car was lucky.
I have stood at the same location on many occasions to tak pictures and
never felt uncomfortable.

Just behind the fin you can see the terrace of the Sunset Beach Bar where
you have a fantastic view of all the aircraft landing and taking off.

The second picture is taken from the terrace and shows another 747
(PH-BFA) making a better approach.

Does this runway run from one side of the island to the other?

No. Is on the western side of the Dutch part of the island.
Jet aircraft always approach from the west (Yes, I know there will probably
have been an exception. Never mind.). They also taxy from the apron to the
western end of the runway, do a 180 and take off.
At the eastern end of the runway there is Simpson Bay so there is no easy
way to extend the runway but mostly the big jets have no problem landing.
Taking off is another matter. Big jets can not take off with a full fuel
load because there a hills at the other end of Simpson Bay. They take off
with partly filled tanks and for trans-Atlantic flights they land at nearby
islands with longer runways.
That is one of the reasons the Sunset Beach Bar is so popular. You can sit
there drinking something cold and wait for the plane carrying the people you
expect to come in and when you bring people away you can drop them at the
airport, go to the bar and wait for the plane to take off.

Regards,
Herman