Enough of talking about Hong Kong for a little while. Let’s talk about awesome low approaches into St. Martin airport, SXM, in the Caribbean. It is a famous airport for large airplanes and low approaches. It is a tiny island, and the runway is only 7,200 feet long.

SXM is a favorite visiting spot for many from the Netherlands and France, two countries that share ownership of the island. There is such demand for flights into SXM, that both Air France and KLM fly large aircraft into that small airport, because of the popularity of the island. This is a great combination for large airplanes close to the ground because of the size of the plane and the length of the runway. 

Planes cross over the beach with sometimes 10-15 foot clearances over the heads of the sun bathers on the beach! I’m in training to fly the 747, pictured above, and the close proximity to the people on the beach shows just how big the plane really is, and how amazing this approach is. Too bad that Cathay doesn’t fly there!

This YouTube video below, is one of the best I’ve ever seen, of any landing in SXM. The picture at the top of the post shows the landing from another angle. Just look at how close the landing gear come to the fence next to the road, which runs next to the runway. In the picture above, you can see two white specks — those are two guys who just had the plane cross over their heads, and I’ll bet their looking for a bathroom! Just a little bit low by the pilot means a huge crash and certain death to anyone standing that close to the fence. To dispel any rumors, there have been no major crashes at St. Martin.

There are a couple bars that are close to the runway on the beach, and I can imaging how cool it would be to sit there drinking a cool drink and watching jumbo jets pass by just a few hundred feet away.

Normally, planes try to touch down 1,000 feet down the runway, marked off by runway markings. Here in SXM, the runway is too short to do that, but landing beyond the runway threshold is always a must — the threshold being a white painted line or bar across the runway. But, some of these guys touch down prior to the runway, in the run-up area, marked off by yellow lines, seen above. Pretty wild and pretty cool.

Below will be the best landing I’ve ever seen in SXM. Enjoy