CARIBBEAN WINGS
Locations don’t get much more stunning than this! Princess Juliana International Airport on the Caribbean island of St Maarten has to be on the ‘bucket list’ for many an aviation enthusiast. Whilst not to everybody’s taste, the combination of sun and sand is joined by the roar of jet engines intermittently throughout the day as airliners touch down and depart its 7,500ft runway. What makes the arrivals unique though, is that the runway threshold starts just 160m from the edge of Maho Beach, which of course brings aircraft very low over beach-goers on the final stages of their approach. Where else in the world would you find a bar, grab a beer and see all of the flight times of the local airport on screens on the wall, purely because they offer a rather extraordinary spectacle!
Whilst not the largest aircraft in the world, a Boeing 757 is still quite intimidating when it passes over this low! Working out how to achieve focus and framing on a frame which is going to appear and then be gone in a fraction of a second is a challenge but great when it works out…and the shadow really makes it! What can’t be anticipated though is the moment a charismatic clipper ship sails past on the horizon and puts a little more Caribbean ‘zing’ into the shot!
Images by Andy Donovan.
Images by Andy Donovan.