The moment this shot was taken I was laying on my back a few hundred yards from the Saint Maarten International Airport.
Amazingly, I wasn't using a telephoto lense. In fact, I had to shoot with a 50mm lense because the plane was so close it was the only way to get the whole thing in the picture.
How low do they go? Watch the video below.
In fact, they fly so low that a large sign warns onlookers about the possible dangers of being too close to the jet engines.
There's nothing subtle about their message. Stand under the descending plane at your own risk. Get too close and you may live forever on YouTube as a viral video showing the idiot who gets blown backwards into the ocean.
Actually the stark warning isn't taken very seriously. It was tough finding a place to get positioned directly under the plane's flight path because so many people had claimed their spot.
The only sign larger than the warning is located at the Sunset Bar and Grill that sits next to the airport. This one lists all of the arriving flights for that day so you don't have an excuse to miss the chance to be under the jet as it lands, or when it takes off. After one beer the idea seems nuts. Two or three beers down and the idea becomes more intriguing.
Here is a video showing people purposely putting themselves in the jet blast path as planes depart from St. Maarten's airport.
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