On all my landings at St Maarten I never dragged the aircraft in low over the threshold to amuse the tourists, not even in the 727. It was always a normal approach and landing in the touchdown zone.
There is no reason to do that as the runway is long enough for normal operations. If it was not, one should not attempt to land there.
Now, sitting at the Sunset Beach Bar (which I used to do a lot) I have seen a lot of pilots, both airline and corporate cross the road just off the end of the runway way too low. Stupidly low and sad to say, most are airliners. Which in my mind needs to be addressed by airline management, not governmental regulatory means.
Also I have observed while sitting at the Sunset Beach Bar (which I used to do a lot) that the tourists that gather on the beach off the end of the runway mostly enjoy standing under the arriving aircraft even when the approach is normal. The main reason these idiots, err tourists, are there is for the takeoffs of large airliners, especially 747s, so that they can get blown off the beach into the water by the thrust of the engines at max power on takeoff.
Human nature, what can you say.
Never the less, the road and beach should not be closed. After all, as an Admiral once told me, “Ya got to expect losses.”
