International, Media

World’s Most Dangerous Airport

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

Although it may look Photoshopped, it’s not. It’s a landing at runway 10 at Princess Juliana International Airport, St. Maarten, in the Netherlands Antilles. The runway is short, 7546 feet, and large, heavy aircraft need every inch, and so touch down as soon as possible. This makes for some hair raising plane spotting for those on the beach.

Here is a video of a 747 landing:

Here is a video of a landing of a 747 as seen from the cockpit. Notice how the plane has to turn around at the end of the runway and taxi back up the runway to reach the turnoff.

You can see other amazing pictures, like this one, here.

It has been designated the World’s Most Dangerous Airport.

H/T: WEIT.

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42 thoughts on “World’s Most Dangerous Airport”

  1. Bud,

    Up in the air in a balloon without the burners is unbelievable … time loses all relevance. When we landed I thought we’d been up for 10, maybe 15 minutes when it had actually been over an hour.

    Sadly, champagne was only to celebrate landing and a successful chase. At least that’s what the crew told me.

  3. OS,

    That was a great read.

    Aircraft, for sure, do have personalities. Like you said
    some good, some bad. I personally have never met a
    Cessna I didn’t love…

    My favorite has always been the 150/152. Like a good
    suit or pair of jeans or shoes, the Cessna 150 always
    seemed to fit me… I knew what I could expect, and it
    knew what I wanted… I never owned one, but flew many
    hundreds of hours in them.

    I also have lots of time in both the Cardinal and the
    Cardinal RG. I also loved that airplane… Save for the
    landing gear (in the RG model)… It was fast and that
    cabin door made it feel more like a Lincoln than an
    aircraft….

    As far as the 337 went, I always felt that I was flying a
    very heavy solid airplane. It was far more stable in my
    opinion than either Cardinal. It was a true gem –
    especially the P337. Absolutely heaven….

    I very much enjoyed the vid about the fellas in Michigan.

    I think they’re addicted too….

    Thanks OS, really great to read your works.

  5. Blouise,

    Those burners do get awfully loud don’t they?

    Isn’t it incredible.
    Up there in the early morning hours,
    while the rest of the world sleeps, seeing the
    real beauty of the planet (little area) before
    we get it all noisy and polluted for the day.

    The beauty and peace is so very stirring
    for me.

    I am a very firm believer too, that you should
    only keep your champagne bottled up for a
    very short period of time.
    (takeoff to touch down) LOL

  6. Bud,

    My brother was addicted to flight and racked up hours … he was also an instructor for hot air balloons and thus dealt with a lot of military pilots getting their alternative hours (he was also a Colonel (O-6) in the Air Force).

    He did manage to convince me to go up with him and I have to admit it was unbelievably peaceful when the burners weren’t going … liked the champagne best. 😉

  8. When I lived in LA, I took flights into and out of Burbank (now Bob Hope) airport. It has a short runway and a mountainous approach. I’m a nervous flier.

  9. Hi Blouise

    You don’t like air travel Blouise???

    I am the opposite.
    I’m addicted…
    I think when I was born, I got
    injected with some Jet-A, skydrol, and
    a Mobill II combination…

    And that landing in St Maarten..
    I file that under “R”.

    “R” for routine.

    However, It is a shame that the public
    doesn’t see what damage can accidentally
    be caused by jet blast. (arriving and
    departing) not to mention how badly their
    hearing could be impaired.

  11. “Note to self: if ever going to St. Maarten, take a ship.” (Gene)

    If ever going anywhere take a ship, train, bus, car, horse … never fly. (yep, I have a phobia)

    Bud … good to see you!

  12. OS, LOL

    One of the worse airfields I’ve encountered was in central Texas. The landing strip was grass. I was a passenger in a single engine prop. It was late in the day and we were low on fuel. We had to buzz the field several times get all the grazing deer off the runway.

  14. OL,

    One of the most interesting airfields I ever used was the Black Forest Gliderport just outside Colorado Springs. It is now closed, the land having been sold off to developers. The strip was used mainly by gliders. It was paved, and five thousand feet long. It was only 20 feet wide. On approach, it looked as if you were trying to land on the back of a table knife. To make it worse, the south end of the runway was about two hundred feet lower than the north end. That meant takeoffs could only be to the south, no matter what the wind direction. There were trees and some houses on the north end and if you tried to take off uphill, the grade might be steeper than your rate of climb and you could end up in the trees.

    There were five 10-knot wind socks at Black Forest (that means a ten knot wind will make it stand straight out). One on each corner of the field and one right in the middle next to the runway. I have seen them all standing straight out like so many orange stovepipes, and every one of them pointed in a different direction. This was due to the wind currents on the lee side of Pike’s Peak swirling around. Some of my landings there could be described as…….interesting.

  15. OS, glad you mentioned wingtip vortexes. It brought to memory part of a pleasant afternoon of long ago.

    In Gravelly Point Park across from the end of a runway at National Airport (that should date me), aficionadoes would sit for hours and on their special receivers listen to the tower and the pilots talk to each other. Of course aircraft would pass over at close distances.

    Nearby was a row of young conifers (don’t remember the type, but they were wispy) about 8-10 feet tall. As large aircraft landed, the trees on either side of the aircraft would bow in opposite directions.

    It really was much cooler than it sounds in this post.

  17. OL,
    Those dumb butts may think the big airplane just makes a big puff of wind as it goes by. A heavily loaded large aircraft, flying slowly, generates almost tornadic winds from wake turbulence and wingtip vortex. They are actually strong enough to cause structural damage to other aircraft flying too close behind them.

    This short video shows pilots practicing recovering from flying into wake turbulence. This particular aircraft is fully aerobatic and built to withstand far more G-forces than the average private plane.

  18. If you time it right (which is about always) you may even see the silly antics of the St. Maarten Morons.

  19. Saint Barthélemy (aka St. Barths) is right up there with Princess Julianna Airport. Big airplanes cannot land there, and even in a small aircraft it is a challenge. Tourists come and go in commercial aircraft rigged for STOL (slow take off & landing). It is rated as the third most dangerous airport. Approach is down a steep hillside, hugging the nap of the earth. Because of the steep approach, it is difficult to get the airplane slowed down, even with full flaps deployed, depending on the aircraft type. A phenomenon called “ground effect” makes the landing more difficult because ground effect causes an airplane to “float” when at an altitude of one-half the wingspan of the plane. This is what happened to a Piper PA-23 Aztec. a couple of years ago. You can see the plane float in ground effect. What I do not understand is why, when he is halfway down the runway and still has not touched down, he did not add power and go around. Those two big white stripes on the runway are called the touchdown point, and are the target for getting the wheels on the pavement. Once past those, you are on your own.

  20. Wow . . . and I thought landing on Moen Island in the Truk Lagoon was scary.

    Note to self: if ever going to St. Maarten, take a ship.

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