My family loves Sint Maarten for lots of reasons, but the thing that first drew us to the island was the thrill of watching aircraft land and takeoff at Princess Juliana International Airport from Maho Beach and Sunset Beach Bar. Both my wife and I have worked for years in the airline industry, and SXM has always been a draw for aviation enthusiasts – better known as airplane geeks.
I wanted to share a couple videos I shot the last time we were on the island. My wife and I share the same birthday, believe it or not, of May 24. So, every year we take a trip to celebrate. Most of the time we end up in Sint Maarten because, well, why wouldn’t we?
This year we were able to see an American Airlines plane take off to the west — flights normally take off to the east, over the mountains and then bank hard right (south) — and I was fortunate enough to get great video of the takeoff.
As if that wasn’t cool enough, when we were departing the island our flight — also on American — took off to the west as well. So, naturally, I started to record the takeoff thinking it’d be cool to have video of takeoffs to the west from both on the ground and in-plane. Of course, I never knew I’d be sharing them with anyone else like I am now, so that makes it even cooler.
Watching these videos makes me want to be there so much. Take a look and I hope you enjoy!
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