Plane Narrowly Avoids Packed Maho Beach, Astonishing Video Captures Near-Miss

A passenger plane narrowly escaped landing on a packed beach instead of its runway at Maho Beach. However, rather than being a near-miss, this is just a regular occurrence at the popular destination for plane-spotters.

The recorded incident took place on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten, and a variety of holiday-goers decided to capture one of the moments that a plane just missed the beach.

Paul Luning, who was one of the many visitors to St. Maarten enjoying the conditions, uploaded a clip of this particular near-miss to his Instagram account.

“Flying frequently tends to make one either bitter or obsessed with aviation. I fall into the latter category. Visiting Maho Beach in Saint Marteen was always on my bucket list. It’s as crazy as it looks — planes landing just feet from a public beach.”

In the midst of the clip, which has delightfully been slowed down so that you can view everyone’s reactions, you can see a bevy of visitors to the island taking pictures of the plane as it just flies past the beach.

Mr. Luning also captured another intimate snap of a different plane as it came into land at St. Maarten, which proves that this isn’t the first, and won’t be the last, time that an air-craft almost collides with the beach.

Princess Juliana International Airport has gained a reputation for just how close it is to Maho Beach.

That’s because the planes that do land have to touch down as close as possible to the start of Runway 10 because it is so short, which means that they fly over the beach at a minimal altitude.

Also, because of the jet blasts from planes that take off from runway 10, the local government had to erect the following sign.

In fact it has turned into a huge tourist attraction for thrill-seeking beach-goers, and Maho Beach even has plane timetables available so that tourists can sync up their visit with when planes arrive.

Paul Luning clearly fits into this category, too, because he later took to his Instagram account, via the Irish Mirror, to write, “Flying frequently tends to make one either bitter or obsessed with aviation. I fall into the latter category. Visiting Maho Beach in Saint Marteen, was always on my bucket list. It’s as crazy as it looks – planes landing just feet from a public beach.”

[Images via Instagram/Wikicommons]