Maho Beach is a beach on the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

side of the Caribbean island of Saint Martin, in the territory of

Sint Maarten Sint Maarten () is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Caribbean. With a population of 41,486 as of January 2019 on an area of , it encompasses the southern 44% of the divided island of Saint Martin, while the nort ...

. It is famous for being adjacent to the

Princess Juliana International Airport Princess Juliana International Airport is the main airport on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin. The airport is located on the Dutch side of the island, in the country of Sint Maarten, close to the shore of Simpson Bay Lagoon. In 2015, the ...

and is a popular site for tourists and plane watchers, who visit the beach to watch aircraft on final approach land at the airport.

Location

Due to the unique proximity of low-flying

airliners An airliner is a type of aircraft for transporting passengers and air cargo. Such aircraft are most often operated by airlines. Although the definition of an airliner can vary from country to country, an airliner is typically defined as an ai ...

arriving and departing from

, the location is popular with plane spotters. This is one of the few places in the world where aircraft can be viewed in their flight path just outside the end of the runway. Watching airliners pass over the beach is such a popular activity that daily arrivals and departures airline timetables are displayed on a board in most bars and restaurants on the beach. SXM-Maho-A343-takeoff-800

Maho Beach is unusually close to the threshold of a runway and is directly under the flight path, resulting in aircraft on their final approach flying over the beach at altitudes of less than above ground level. This makes the beach a popular location for photographers and video makers who intend to capture the aircraft approaching the airport. There is a danger of people standing on the beach being blown into solid objects or the water because of the

jet blast Jet blast is the phenomenon of rapid air movement produced by the jet engines of aircraft, particularly on or before takeoff. A large jet-engined aircraft can produce winds of up to as far away as behind it at 40% maximum rated power. Jet b ...

from aircraft taking off from

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concre ...

10. The local government warns that closely approaching and departing aircraft can "result in serious injury and/or death". An additional fence has been added recently behind runway 10, in order to prevent people from hanging onto the main fence surrounding the runway to experience being blasted by the jet flow. The beach itself is white sand and has little to no vegetation because of jet blast

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is dis ...

. The Caravanserai Resort, the Sunset Bar and other restaurants/night clubs such as Bamboo Bernies and Bliss are located nearby. The beach is popular with

windsurfers Windsurfing is a wind propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the aerospace and surf culture of California. Windsurfing ga ...

and skimboarders because of occasional large waves.

History

On October 16, 2008, the Maho area of St. Maarten was badly damaged by

Hurricane Omar Hurricane Omar was a powerful tropical cyclone that took an unusual southwest to northeast track through the eastern Caribbean Sea during mid-October 2008. Forming out of a tropical disturbance on October 13, Omar initially moved slowly in t ...

, which destroyed the

Sunset Bar and Grill The Sunset Bar and Grill is a small bar located on Maho Beach in Sint Maarten, formerly known as the Sunset Beach Bar. It is best known for its proximity to Princess Juliana International Airport Princess Juliana International Airport is the ...

as well as Bamboo Bernies and Bliss. In November 2009, the Sunset Bar and Grill and Bliss were both re-opened. Hurricane Omar reduced the beach to boulders, and damaged the nearby Royal Islander Club La Plage which re-opened February 14, 2009. The same occurred with

Hurricane Irma Hurricane Irma was an extremely powerful Cape Verde hurricane that caused widespread destruction across its path in September 2017. Irma was the first Category 5 hurricane to strike the Leeward Islands on record, followed by Maria two ...

in 2017. On 12 July 2017, as

Caribbean Airlines Caribbean Airlines Limited is the state-owned airline and flag carrier of Trinidad and Tobago. The airline is also the flag carrier of Jamaica and Guyana. Headquartered in Iere House in Piarco, the airline operates flights to the Caribbean, ...

Flight 457 was taking off from the airport, a 57-year-old woman from

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

was killed by

. The woman was holding on to a fence at the end of the runway when the wind blew her away, causing her head to smash into concrete. Hurricane Irma on Sint Maarten (NL) 09

References

External links

{{Commons category, Maho Beach
Maho Beach Photo Gallery
Landforms of Sint Maarten Beaches of the Netherlands