Princess Juliana International Airport serves Saint Maarten, the Dutch part of the island of Saint Martin. It is the second busiest airport in the Eastern Caribbean. The airport is famous for its short landing strip — only 2,180 meters/7,152 ft, which is barely enough for heavy jets.
Because of this, the planes approach the island flying extremely low, right over Maho Beach. Countless photos of large jets flying at 10–20 m/30-60 ft over relaxing tourists at the beach have been dismissed as fakes many times, but are nevertheless real. For this reason as well it has become a favorite for plane spotters. Despite the difficulties in approach, there has been no records of major aviation incidents at the airport.
