Join me on a flight to 2 of the most dangerous airports in the Caribbean; Saba and St Barth. Here, you are not afraid to fly, but rather to land!
Starting with some plane spotting action at St Maarten Princess Juliana Int’l Airport. Most beach vacationers gather on Maho Beach and anxiously wait for the plane to fly a few meters above their heads before landing and resisting the jet blast on takeoff.
I flew with SXM Airways pilot Jean-Marc Oliver on the Britten Norman Islander (BN-2A-26) from St Maarten to Saba. Saba Airport has the world’s shortest commercial runway at just 400m. The entire island is mountainous and looks like Jurassic Park. Watch our landing and takeoff at Saba, the plane used the entire runway for takeoff and literally “dropped” after leaving the runway!
Next is St Barth. As beautiful as the runway on the Caribbean island, the landing is extreme! Located between the mountains and the sea, it is only 640 meters long. We encountered some strong crosswinds and turbulence before “diving” into the airport. It was some of my most exciting flight as I had to stop filming to watch out for the landing.