I used to have a photo taken from that beach of a KLM 747 about to land (wasn't my photo, I've never been there but want to go! ) on my computer desktop at work. I got a few questions about whether it was real.

The landing's no worse than LGA or SFO and SM is a great little island. The beach in the lower left corner of the Air France shot was nice, and travelling up to the French side there's a great little town, shops, etc.,

There's a little restaurant just down from this location and we'd go there for lunch and watch the planes landing. The funny part was always the new arrivals who didn't know jets would be flying directly over them and didn't get out of the way.

Takeoffs from that end - engine power with brakes on (need a fast climb due to the mountain on the island) was interesting for folks who forgot to get out of the way also.

This is at Maho beach in St. Maarten. KL still offers the 747 service, but I think AF has switched to a 343. The 747 flights have to make a refuel stop in Curacao as they can't take off with a full fuel load!

For those of you who are into aviation (as opposed to discussing travelling on airplanes), there is a big difference between SXM and LGA and SFO.

LGA is much like SXM, because both airports have short runways (SXM: 7,054 ft, while LGA's two runways (4/22 & 13/31) are both 7,000 ft. long).

The difference is that LGA has the most elaborate navigational aid to assist pilots landing, the ILS (Instrument Landing System). The basic difference, is that ILS provides pilots with both horizontal and vertical data, to ensure precise approachs.

SXM has only VOR/DME approaches. This is means pilots have to eyeball their vertical approach. Especially on the heavies, this means most pilots tend to approach low because they are concerned about overshooting the short runway once they've landed.

Regarding SFO, it's also an overwater landing on most approaches, but SFO has ILS and much longer runways (the longest, 10L/28R is 11,870 ft long). Also, the runways at SFO are much wider than either SXM or LGA.

Another good landing is next door to SXM, it's the runway 10 approach at St Barts. The runway is up against a hill and the final involves a steep dip past the hill to the runway. Fun!

Here's a link to some video:

http://civilizedexplorer.phanfare.co.../23700/1069046

I used to have one of these pics as my background for my laptop

PH-BFN
PH-BFG

Here's a couple more of that really low KLM action:

http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5769968
http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5769962

WOW!!!

I considered going to SXM for our Honeymoon but decided on OGG instead...Wish I'd known I could get that close to the landing approach we would have definitely gone to SXM.

Looks like a great place for our 1 year anniversary!!!

Those are some stunning shots, thanks to everyone for posting the links.

Do you mean like this?

http://www.break.com/index/plane_blows_beach_away.html

I think I'd poo myself...

Keep in mind that a zoom lens will make objects appear closer than they actually are. That doesn't change the fact that the runway is close to the beach, but that the plane and people may not be as close to each other as they appear.

Some very impressive pictures regardless.

That's precisely the video I had in mind - I haven't seen it in a couple of years. But it's still funny.

Looks like he wasn't many feet away from doing some nasty damage to his gear and tyres.

I thought that touching down before the displaced threshold was a no-no, whatever the reason? Something to do with pavement loadings not always being up to the same level as on the runway proper.

Looking at the phot closely, and remembering the layout, I think he's still 50 feet or so in the air and not yet over land. The compressed point-of-view of the lens makes it appear that the wheels are about to touch down on the very right edge of the runway. In fact, the wheels and right of the runway are just in a line when the picture was shot.

I suspect he will pass over the fence just to the right of the small group of spectators on the left.

Another famous example - these planes aren't actually crashing - http://www.jetphotos.net/images/l/LH....jpg.60983.jpg - the United flight is several hundred feet ahead of the other jet - they're just inline with the camera.

Ok - you got me. Wow! That is neat!