New Zealand Tourist Dies After Being Hit by Jet Blast

monkeymagick

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Mark this one as another honoree for this year's Darwin Award. A tourist was killed by jet blast from an airliner at Maho Beach in St. Maarten. Located next to Princess Juliana Airport, the beach is a tourism spot known for approaching low-flying jet aircraft. The 57-year-old woman was "knocked off her feet by a plane's powerful wake" according to a police report and sustained injuries to her head. She and a group of tourists were standing near a fence separating the runway and beach with warning signs. Maybe this is why we can't have nice things -- I guess?

Visitors have been tossed by planes' jet blast before, but this marks the first fatality of its kind at the site.

In 2012, a beachgoer was blown face-first into a low wall behind her while trying to withstand a jet engine's back wash.
 
OK well now its over they are going to extend that fence 100 meters in every direction.
Ionno why but they gave a 5 times more room to oneside of the runway as opposed to the other, why not just push the runway further back and pave the unused land to give larger aircraft more runway it's not much but it's atleast better than nothing.
 
Ionno why but they gave a 5 times more room to oneside of the runway as opposed to the other, why not just push the runway further back and pave the unused land to give larger aircraft more runway it's not much but it's atleast better than nothing.


Because its New Zealand.
 
Ionno why but they gave a 5 times more room to oneside of the runway as opposed to the other, why not just push the runway further back and pave the unused land to give larger aircraft more runway it's not much but it's atleast better than nothing.
Probably because it was cheaper removing a few sets of runway lights for larger jets to land than extend the runway and didn't think people were that stupid to stand behind planes landing, that's my guess. The airport here has a similar setup with a road behind the runway that lets you watch planes land but the closest a plane can get to the fence is 2000 ft where the last runway light is and even at that distance you can still feel the jet blast.

Runways are not cheap to extend especially if that airports setup for a380's and 747's to land there. but I agree they'll probably move the fence further back.
 
Been there, done that. There are signs warning of danger all over and, yes, everyone ignores them. It's fun to stand there. Not fair that bad things randomly happen, but it certainly seems like it must've been a bizarre accident.
 
Just because you see a youtubes of idiots does not mean you have to mimic them, this was bound to happen.
 
Just because you see a youtubes of idiots does not mean you have to mimic them, this was bound to happen.

But then I won't have anything to put on YouTube!

Seriously though, why does anyone care? Why are we constantly trying to save stupid people from themselves? This is just natural selection in action. But some whiny "all human life is sacred" dipshit will get them to block off the beach because God forbid we let the lemmings run off the cliff (and yes, I'm aware that lemmings don't really do that when Disney's nature documentary camera people aren't forcing them to because even they're smarter than stupid people).
 
I'm surprised the "victim" defense squad hasn't shown up here yet. Seems they have no problem calling a stupid old person stupid, but of is a "young attractive female" they are a victim even if it was their own stupid fault.
 
But then I won't have anything to put on YouTube!

Seriously though, why does anyone care? Why are we constantly trying to save stupid people from themselves? This is just natural selection in action. But some whiny "all human life is sacred" dipshit will get them to block off the beach because God forbid we let the lemmings run off the cliff (and yes, I'm aware that lemmings don't really do that when Disney's nature documentary camera people aren't forcing them to because even they're smarter than stupid people).

Unfortunately culling the stupid through natural selection only works before they have children, which is rarely the case.
 
Ionno why but they gave a 5 times more room to oneside of the runway as opposed to the other, why not just push the runway further back and pave the unused land to give larger aircraft more runway it's not much but it's atleast better than nothing.
My guess is that 1) they need to land on the ocean side because they can get low to the water where as the other side has populated areas, 2) the little strip of the island the runway is on is limited in size so coming down right next to the beach allows them to maximize the runway length, and 3) having space on the other side of the runway is useful in the unfortunate event of a plane not being able to stop in time so that it can have a "rougher" patch to slow down rather than going off into the water.

The upside is this didn't happen in the US. In most other parts of the world they have common sense, ok maybe not the average person but the legal system when it comes to giving out "awards" for stuff like this. A judge over there will see it, and say "well there are signs that warn you of it, plenty of pictures showing what could happen if you don't read the language of the sign, as well as warning lights and sirens that come on when a plane is landing, so sorry she died but it's kind of her fault, NEXT CASE". Where as in the US they would argue that even if there was a fence that stretched over the beach and 200 feet into the water, topped with barbed wire and surrounded by a moat with crocodiles there would be a lawyer claiming that there wasn't enough done to prevent their client from getting into the area then proceed to sue the airport, the airline of the plane that did it, the manufacturer of the fence, the maintenance company that feeds the crocodiles and of course the hotel she was staying at on the other side of the island that they failed in warning her that there's a dangerous place out there in the world.
 
Youtube "Girl blown by plane" and you can see why its a bad idea to be there. Faceplant in to a concrete divider. Probably the same thing happened just with an older more frail person.
 
meh. This wouldn't be news if she died from drinking and heat stroke - which is also probably pretty common on that beach!
 
Ionno why but they gave a 5 times more room to oneside of the runway as opposed to the other, why not just push the runway further back and pave the unused land to give larger aircraft more runway it's not much but it's atleast better than nothing.

Because it's more important to have space at the end of a runway for emergency runoff than it is the start, and the prevailing winds mean that the vast majority of landings are on the 10 rather than the 28 approach on this runway. Not to mention the fact that a 28 landing means a really vicious steep turn to line up before landing...
 
Unfortunately culling the stupid through natural selection only works before they have children, which is rarely the case.

Finally, I was waiting for this to happen.

The rest of the story is that she was talked into doing it by her other vacationing friends.

Should the friends be held accountable for it? I wonder how they feel now?

Worst thing is that it was supposed to be a life changing thing to do. Like a bucket list item. Hope it was the last thing on her list.
 
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