THIS is Why I Will NEVER Get on One of These Things!!!

[David In Indy]

see? them things are dangerous even when you are NOT on them!

    

That's the sand blast I was talking about! 

It's pretty bad, isn't it? If that video was a little bit wider, you could probably see where our hotel was. I don't even remember the name of it anymore. It was big and it was painted white I think. Back then it was the largest hotel on the Dutch side, probably the largest on the entire island because the Dutch side was more developed than the French side was. It's probably all different now. It's been almost 30 years since I've been there. I hope they haven't deveoped it too much because it was such a pretty island and the people there were so friendly.

[David In Indy]

You are so lucky to have been there David, I'd love to go there. Its on my list of must go there places

I think I'd rather be on the plane than getting sand blasted.

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I hope you get there someday soon. I'm sure you'd love it. And thanks for posting the video. It's funny watching all those people running into the water, but I'll bet all that sand really hurt!

[David In Indy]

Who the heck picks where airports are located?

I thought it was a joke at first when that plane slid off a wet runway in South America and right into a gas station and blew up.

I was thinking, "That can't be real.  It has to be a punchline.  What idiot puts a gas station at the end of an airport runway?"

And now look at this St. Maarten house of horrors.

When the Delta plane crashed at DFW airport back in the mid 80's, it crushed a car on Spur 114, the road passing by the approach path of the plane.

What if the pilot has a bad day or a bad gust of wind at the last moment?  I wouldn't want to be anywhere near that beach.

Well, if I remember correctly, when the airport was placed there originally, it accommodated airplanes much smaller than these huge jets. They've obviously added new runways there, or lengthened existing ones. There was NO WAY a 747 could have landed there when I visited St. Maarten. The jet we were on was probably too big for that little airport. And that mountain is much more scary than the beach is. They warned us about it ahead of time, and he really jerked our plane hard in order to miss crashing into it. It was a little bit scary. lol

[David In Indy]

Most airports start on the outskirts of towns and then civilization moves in around them.  Many of the airports in the US date back to WWII and were originally air bases.

Did you have to dodge the mountain when you took off Susie? Do you remember the mountain? They rev up the engines really fast, and you shoot down the runway as if you were just shot out of a rubber band. Just as you get airborne, they swerve the plane to miss the mountain. It's probably about a mile or two from the end. I really can't remember for sure, but it's close enough for the pilot to take evasive action.

[David In Indy]

Here is the beach on the Dutch side in late 2005 ...

I wish I could remember the name of the hotel we stayed in. It was beautiful. It was very large (at least 5 stories) and I think it was painted white. It probably had several hundred rooms in it. It was directly on the beach and the balcony from our room faced the ocean. We'd walk the beach each evening after it got dark, and then late at night I'd sit out there on the balcony and listen to the waves from the ocean. Absolute paradise.

[Artiste]

Maybe this can be said too:
I recently heard on the radio, that at least 2 per cent or so, in USA airplanes are fake products !

So, I will not take any airplane any more, no matter from which country, since they allow FAKE items to be in their body; so how can you be assured of getting home SAFE ?

Au revoir,
hugs !

[David In Indy]

Maybe this can be said too:
I recently heard on the radio, that at least 2 per cent or so, in USA airplanes are fake products !

So, I will not take any airplane any more, no matter from which country, since they allow FAKE items to be in their body; so how can you be assured of getting home SAFE ?

Au revoir,
hugs !

We have fake airplanes here?

[David In Indy]

It sounds like it!  I was married in the Caribbean and have spent significant time there, it being so close to Florida.  My idea of fun is to go somewhere exotic ... meaning somewhere cold. 

Up in Alaska, and even in places like Sweden and Finland, they have hotels made entirely out of ice... even the furniture, including the beds! I saw that on the Travel Channel one day. Since I live in Indiana, that doesn't look like much fun, but for a Floridian it might be fun and interesting.

[delalluvia]

Most airports start on the outskirts of towns and then civilization moves in around them.  Many of the airports in the US date back to WWII and were originally air bases.

I understand this, but SOMEone has to approve the zoning and construction of roads.  SOMEone allows gas stations, child care centers, roads, neighborhoods - heck why not nuclear power plants while we're at it? - on the same line as the approach/takeoff to the runways.

You'd think someone would be farsighted enough to plan for all contingencies.

I think it was when the O'Hare airport disaster happened, that someone in my city calculated that had the plane taken off from our mid-city airport and crashed the same distance after takeoff as did the Chicago plane, it would have tore into the downtown skyscrapers a la WTC.  Not so fun thought. 

[ZK]

Don' watch Injest, Don't watch

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lucky last, note the ones from our capital city Welllington

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