One insane takeoff.

That had to be St Martin's and the crazies at the end of the runway. Looked pretty normal to me.

WAYNE IT IS AND THE 747 LOOKED LIKE 15 FEET ABOVE EVERYBODYS HEADS

Sounds about right. I remember watching a deal on History Channel the other night about the World's 10 worst airports. It had that one listed on account of the mountains at the other end and the low approach / departure on that end as well as the fence hangers on with landings and departures opposite of the video. Crazy bunch of people. Takeoff ain't near as insane as the one filming it.lol

Thats not "insane" but its cool.

this is what the captain must have been saying to his co-pilot...."don't rotate til you see the whites of the videographer's eyes!" HAHAHA

that was insane.

Insane!

All takeoffs and landings at Princess Juliana are awesome, but this one is really cool.

I am pretty sure some pilots buzz the beach on purpose. I've seen 737s clear the fence by maybe 10 feet even though they could have rotated and climbed earlier...

I wouldn't doubt that, especially based on what you said. a 737 could probably rotate in 2/3 of that runway or less. Everybody's got to have some fun once in awhile.lol

They should definitely enlarge the airport boundary. What if that 747 had to abort the takeoff? That would kinda kill 'em...

Well Chris, you are probably right. They got all the warning signs and that and right now it's all kinda funnny but let the first accident happen and there will be so much outcry it won't be funny. Besides on that takeoff, when the wind is from the other way and they are landing and taking off from the beach end, think about a short landing, and a pilot made a comment about it the other nite on TV that while waiting for takeoff, he had seen a fence hangar blowed 50' out in the water beind a departure. Somebody will get hurt one of these days.

They should move that fence all the way down the beach, and then into the sea, removing roads & such so planes have a bit more safety...

I've seen lots of videos of landings over this beach at St Maarten but what makes this unique is that the TAKEOFF pattern is over the beach.

All you guys saying they should change the rules...add some safety stuff...enlarge boundary...blah blah blah....haven't been to St. Martin!!! Besides I don't think a few extra tourists going down with a 747 would make the news.

It does actually raise questions (Especially here in Holland, since we're kinda connected to it's airport and it's name)