abandoned their recliners and parasols
in favour of the Sunset Bar and Grill or the
Driftwood Boat Bar, which still occupy
either side of the fi nal approach path.
Both used to be thronged with tourists,
particularly when the widebodied aircraft
arrived from Europe in the early aftenoon.
The bars off ered an appealing comfort,
a place where time could be whiled away
between the sporadic comings and
goings on the airfi eld, but ‘fence-surfi ng’
was also a popular activity. Signs warned
of the danger. Despite a woman being
killed on July 12 last year, there were still
plenty of visitors willing to hang
onto the perimeter chain-link
at the end of Runway 10,where they could ‘enjoy’ being blasted
with hot jet effl ux every time a large
aircraft took off. The results were rather
inevitable and entertaining in their own
right – clothing, bags, towels, beach chairs,
infl atables, people and anything else not
well anchored down got blasted with sand
and blown into the sea. Some items got
recovered, but others drifted off into the
Caribbean and were lost forever.Challenging for widebodies
Princess Juliana’s Runway 10/28
(renumbered from 09/27 in 2008) is
7,546ft (2,300m) and, although it also has
490ft (150m) safety strips, it is still rather
short for heavily laden widebodies.Unfortunately, KLM’s Boeing 747s
disappeared as the fl eet was cut back, and
now Airbus A330s are the largest regular
visitors. Much of the appeal of the beach
was watching the 747s skim over the fence,
but most other aircraft were almost
as entertaining.
The prevailing winds and the lack of a
straight-in approach to the Runway 28
dictates that Runway 10 is still used most of
the time, although 28 is occasionally
available for departures. A 1,115ft (340m)
hill precludes straight climb-outs from
Runway 10, requiring aircraft to make a
sharp right turn shortly after take-off.
Neither end has an ILS, which brings the
landing minima up to 1,000ft height andTOP LEFT: Air France
Airbus A340s visited
daily until Hurricane
Irma struck.
TOP: A sur oard at
the Sunset Bar and
Grill lists arrivals.
ABOVE LEFT: An
American Airlines
Boeing 757-223
passes very low
over Beacon Hill
Road. (Renato
Serra Fonseca)
ABOVE: Cruise ship
passengers fl ock to
the beach to watch
the KLM 747 depart.CARIBBEAN
Extreme Airports // 7372-79_Caribbean.indd 73 11/05/2018 11:57