This was published 8 years ago
St Maarten airport landing video: World's scariest runway
A tourist has captured the moment a passenger jet appears to fly just above the heads of holidaymakers on a packed beach on the Caribbean island of St Maarten.
Maho Beach is said to be one of the best plane spotting locations in the world. It is also home to one of the "scariest" runways in the world at Princess Juliana International Airport.
The length of the runway is just 2180 metres - which is fine for small or medium-sized jets, but as the second busiest airport in the eastern Caribbean, it regularly welcomes wide-body jetliners like Boeing 747s and Airbus A340s, which fly in low over Maho Beach and skim just over the perimeter fence.
The intense footage, posted to YouTube, shows the PAWA Dominicana plane flying above blue waters. The video then pans out, showing stunned onlookers on the beach.
Despite signs warning tourists that blasts from the low-flying jets can cause serious injury or death - crowds still flock to the beach to take selfies.
Princess Juliana airport is the second-busiest airport in the eastern Caribbean region.
Its runway is less than half the length of those found at many international airports.
Some visitors to the beach have been known to hold onto a chain-link fence when a jet is preparing for take-off.
The engines from the jet are said to blast the waiting tourists and even lift them off the ground.
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