Maho Beach
Maho Beach is a beach on the Dutch side of the Caribbean island of Saint Martin, in the territory of Sint Maarten. It is known for being across the Princess Juliana International Airport.[1] It is a popular place for tourists and plane watchers, who visit the beach to watch planes land at the airport.[1] The beach itself is white sand and has little to no vegetation because of jet blast erosion.[2]
Maho Beach is unusually close to the threshold of a runway and is directly under the flight path. This means that an aircraft can be about 100 feet (30 m) above ground level from beach goers.[3]
The local government warns that closely approaching and departing aircraft can "result in serious injury and/or death". An extra fence has been added recently behind runway 10, in order to prevent people from hanging onto the main fence surrounding the runway to experience being blasted by the jet flow.
On October 16, 2008, the Maho area of St. Maarten was badly damaged by Hurricane Omar, which destroyed several restaurants in the era. The same happened with Hurricane Irma in 2017.
In July 2017, a 57-year-old woman from New Zealand was killed after strong winds caused by a plane taking off, pushed her off from the fence and forced her head to smash into concrete.[4]
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References
change- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Katherine Scott (10 July 2018). "Travellers slammed for 'close call' plane stunt at famous beach". Nine.
- ↑ Lee E. Harris, Ph.D., P.E (February 2003). "Site Investigations of the Beach Erosion Problem at Maho Beach, St. Maarten" (PDF). Florida Institute of Technology. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ↑ "Plane Spotting at Maho Beach Philipsburg, St. Maarten". Royal Caribbean. Retrieved 13 August 2024.
- ↑ "Jet blast kills tourist at airport in Sint Maarten". BNO News. July 13, 2017. Retrieved July 13, 2017.
