Air France 747 literally blowing people off the beach

[Robbo]

http://www.alexisparkinn.com/photogalle ... rBy747.wmv

 

his video shows an Air France 747 literally blowing people off the beach, into the water. An amazing display of thrust.Info from viewer Jim Harris:

 

FYI – the footage “Blown into the Water†takes place at the international airport on the island of St. Maartin / St. Martin. (I’ve been there, recognize the place, the “hoop†in the background belongs to a resort right there at the end of the runway.)

 

1. There are signs on the road that runs parallel to the beach warning of jet-blast. I don’t know this, but I would, at the very least, hope that there were similar signs on the beach. (those poor people, I can just imagine the friction burns from being blown down the beach like that!)

 

2. What you *DON’T* see in this picture is what it looks like when some behemoth of an airplane comes in over that beach – seemingly 50’ over your head!

 

St Maartin/St. Martin is roughly triangular in shape – if you imagine a 30/60/90 right triangle set so that the short side is on the bottom, the long side going up the right, and the hypotenuse going from lower-left to upper right – that is roughly the shape of the island. The “long side†is fairly mountainous, with the short side and the hypotenuse being (by comparison) little more than long established sand-bar barrier beaches with a lagoon inside them.

 

What makes it relevant to the story, is that the airport is located along the “short side†on the bottom and within a mile, maybe less, of the end of the runway on the eastern side (toward the “long†sideâ€) is a fairly high mountain – say about 2000’ or so. For whatever reason, airplanes taking off from the airport at St. Maartin (It’s on the Dutch side) usually take off toward the mountain. This requires them to use as little of the runway as possible, and then do a very steep, right-banking climb-out, to avoid impacting the ridge.

 

What many airplanes do is to position themselves as far down toward the other end of the runway as possible, (I’ve actually seen airplanes hang their tails over the road there!), lock their brakes, run their engines up to what sounds like “full emergency power†and once the wheels begin to drag, drop the brakes and climb the heck out of there as quickly as possible. Having left St. Maartin/St. Martin that way – let me tell you, it’s an experience! My resort was right across the lagoon from the airport on the French side and I used to watch the planes leave. (and yes, I wish I had videos of this!) Even the smaller airliners seemed to miss the mountain-side by mere feet.

 

One day, I heard a roar like I’d never heard before and, (Lord have Mercy!), there was a bloody great Air-France 747 getting ready to take off. I was hypnotized – “this is gonna be a disaster!†I’m thinking as I watch this unfold. The 747 taxied to the end of the runway, waited for a moment or two, then (from the sound of it) buried all four throttles in the forward bulkhead, letting all four engines spool up to full power (and then some!), and after about 10 or 20 seconds (maybe longer) at full power, they dropped the brakes and headed down the runway. That plane used more runway than I had ever seen used before, and finally climbed out. He did the steep climb and right-bank maneuver and, by God and by golly, missed the mountain.

 

I don’t know if he clipped any trees, but I bet he scared the you-know-what out of the locals there. He sure as hell scared me, just watching it. I saw only one 747 leave the entire time I was there – and it was a sight to behold. If I ever go back, I’m taking a camcorder with me. One other comment – watching planes land there is also an experience. They usually come in “low and slow†over that beach. So low at times I am convinced that if I was there with a surf-casting rod, I could have snagged myself more than one airplane as it came in to land.