Oh No! Its St Maarten time again

[DHC6tropics]

Well, I didn't see the aircraft land but I did see it's skid marks. The mains touched down approximately 100 feet before the threshold...

Too make this a little more interesting, the PAPI's were malfunctioning that day and giving erronious readings!!!!

[DrKev]

Originally Posted by Beanbag

I wouldn't mind betting that parallax / depth compression from a long lens are making this look worse than it was.

There are no shortage of photos on the net from different positions showing this very landing. The aircraft is clearly lower over the fence than normal landings would normally be over the piano keys.

Originally Posted by DHC6tropics

...the PAPI's were malfunctioning that day and giving erronious readings!

I'm no expert at all, but I though PAPIs were purely optical. How can they give erroneous readings (if they hadn't been misaligned)?

[DHC6tropics]

yes, somehow they became misaligned...and for a day or two the Tower left them on even though pilots (including myself) were telling them that they were wrong.

[chevvron]

PAPI's can easily become mis-aligned by jet wake.

[PitotTube]

pass the threshold at 50ft?

what is going on here? Pass the threshold at 50 ft .. hmmm.. is that 50ft from the flightdeck or the gear or the middle of the aircraft...
anyway this is way too early landing in my opinion



http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1078774/L/

[VP8]

Ahhhhhhh!!

Another classic St Maarten shot

VEEPS

[LeeH88]

St Maarten

Theres a couple of different photos of this landing. On this one you see theres actually a beach just there, haha.

[BOAC]

It is obviously 'silly season' again and you have all forgotten how to use 'Search'.

I have combined a few Spectators' threads here.

There are several other threads on St Maarten spread around in other forums.

[EGLD]

This can't be safe?

Spectacular? yes.
Safe? surely not?
h

[magpienja]

I would not care if it is safe or not I would love to stand there when a 747 comes in, is it st martin.

Nick.

[perkin]

Originally Posted by magpienja

I would not care if it is safe or not I would love to stand there when a 747 comes in, is it st martin.

Nick.

agreed, but its a bit nuts when its so close you can almost touch it! scary, but a hell of a rush I'd expect!

[Doors to Automatic]

KLM landing at St Maarten

Tea and buiscuits with the chief pilot, surely!?

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1078027/M/
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1078774/M/

[WexCan]

They don't seem all too short in the second pic, though I bet those fence huggers thought differently.

[Manual Reversion]

Hope he was on TA rather than RA when the photo ship went into formation! But there again it might be a photo montage!

[Max Angle]

Considering the touchdown zone will well past the piano keys I reckon they look b****y short in the second picture, must have been pretty close to taking out that fence with the wheels.

[galaxy flyer]

They certainly did NOT cross the fence at 50 feet, now did they


GF

[bfisk]

or it might just be taken from an angle that would make the 747 appear very low? There's thousands of piccies from St. Marteen like that, btw. Neat-ish

[podbreak]

what a ripping short-fielder! congrats fellas, thats impressive (and only slightly illegal).

[bubbers44]

One of our pilots landed a tad short of the threshold of our most critical runways and ended up back at the training center. Wonder if they did.

[anartificialhorizon]

What I would like to know is, from what were these photos taken from ???

Tall building , helicopter.......I know a zoom lens was probably used but so close to the approach and above.....Is there high ground overlooking the app?

Cheers !