INSANE 747-400 in St. Maarten.

[railroad]

Was that a tailwind landing or just an illusion being created by the way the swell was rolling. It appears as if the gusts were coming toward the shoreline.

[. ._]

Looked to me like someone should have gone around, but thought they could hand-bomb it in.

But then again, I don't know SFA about flying a big jet. Perhaps that was a perfect approach.

-istp

[bater]

I just love this guy's post... PPL holder is instantly an expert on Transport Category Jets!

thatw as perfect. The pilots knew what they're doing, otherwise they wouldn't have put thousands of lives in danger, the plane, and the reputation of the airline as well. They have instruments and warning systmes in place to help them. I have my PPL trust me guys. that was not close just another day at that airport.

[200hr Wonder]

Pretty sure it was into the wind, look at the guy in the white tee-shirt's hair at the very end of the clip. The wind is in his face and he is facing the runway.

[FL_CH]

jetblast, perhaps?

[Northern Skies]

Was that a tailwind landing or just an illusion being created by the way the swell was rolling. It appears as if the gusts were coming toward the shoreline.

Here's my guess:
-the foamy streaks on the water show the wind as over 10kts.
-you can see the ripple formation moving away from the beach. The windward faces of the ripples tend to have more of a concave "scalloped" appearance than the lee.
-the darks spots moving toward the beach are in time with the waves and are very uniform. They are shadows of waves, not gusts. Good guess though.
-Considering the wind speed, the surf would be way higher than that. I think the small breaks are wave propagation left over from far out to sea. The other side of the island (or a reef there) is probably getting pounded.

[Rockie]

Transport Category aircraft, especially big ones, cross the threshold at 50 feet ideally on a 3 degree glideslope. No exceptions. This guy was at fifty feet while still about 1000 feet out over the ocean. Too busy looking for bare breasts on the beach I guess.

[rigpiggy]

The airport is famous for its short landing strip — only 2,180 metres/7,152 ft,[6] 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 favourite for planespotters. Despite the difficulties in approach, there has been no records of major aviation incidents at the airport