OUTLIER: Oh My God!!! What an Airport!!!

Ever since I was a child I was fascinated by seeing the planes … I used to reside close to the airport and more often I used to build up stories of touching the plane when it passes by and also so many stories about the Concorde jet. Till date one thing that never bores me is Flights … Just to see them take off and land is the main objective when we used to sit dumb for hours at the St. Thomas Mount – close to the airport.

Long time ago, I came across this picture when we were busy hunting for aircraft pictures for our college newsletter “LOYOLITE”. People those who never cared for take offs and landings of an aircraft were surely inspired. Aw was the feeling we had.

The Incredible video @ http://www.metacafe.com/watch/663030/insane_747_400_landing/

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Recently I saw this video of an insane 747 jumbo landing in an airstrip that’s really small. The picturisation was the same image that I saw when we were looking out for a flight photo. I googled for the airport details and I came up with the following data

The airport is Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) of St. Maarten. It is located 15 kilometers northwest of Philipsburg and is operated by Princess Juliana International Operating Company NV (PJIAE), a limited liability company, which is wholly owned by PJIA Holding N.V. which in turn is fully owned by the Island Government of the Island Territory of St. Maarten. Under a concession granted to PJIAE by Government for a period of twenty years - effective January 3, 1997- PJIAE manages, operates, maintains and develops the Princess Juliana International Airport.

The island of St. Maarten / St. Martin is the smallest landmass in the world shared by two nations. The northern side (St. Martin) is governed by the French and the southern side (St. Maarten) is one of the five island territories that make up the semi autonomous country of the Netherlands Antilles, part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. While English is the main language on both sides, Dutch is the official language on the southern side and French the official language on the northern side.

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PJIA is the second busiest airport in the North Eastern Caribbean, in terms of aircraft movements, behind San Juan, Puerto Rico. PJIA is the single most important strategic asset of St. Maarten.

More interesting is that the people have really accustomed to the avionic sounds. Though this strip is small it is a tourist location itself. It’s a paradise for all the aviation lookers around the world and many of the world’s best shots of flights are taken here. More so because u can really boast around saying u touched the aircraft if u really wanted to, cause u will able to do so.