Plane spotter struck, killed by plane in St. Barths - Thursday, August 21, 2008
An American tourist taking photos of airplanes was struck and killed by a departing aircraft at the St. Barthelemy airport in Guadeloupe Wednesday. The photographer was reportedly standing on the beach area at the departure end of runway 10 when he was struck in the head by the landing gear of a Tropical Airlines plane which had rolled abnormally long during its takeoff. The 40 year old man was airlifted University hospital Point-with-Pitre/Abymes where he later died.
Many pics showing just how low the planes are over the beach operating in and out of that short strip.
I'm sorry he passed away he was in a coma last time I heard of his condition, he was taking picks when the 2oter was taking off.... they should fence off part of the beach...
You shouldn't need a fence to keep you from standing 10 ft from the end of an active runway. See the jabronie in the first pic standing under the plane taking the picture while the other folks are at least running away? And even having to run is a bit stupid I think as you can certainly hear them coming long before they're a threat to hit you.
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Being stupid around airplanes is a capital offence and nature is a hanging judge!
“It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.”
Mark Twain
Hey, a pic of WIH..........I haven't flown that plane since 2000.
It was very common to have people standing at the end of the runway during landing or taking off. If we landed on 10, sometimes we would roll to the end just to see if any girls were down there. Taking off, I held it down sometimes just cause we were bored. Full flap take offs were fun, especially when the locals had never seen them before!
If we had to come in on 28, we were commited to landing once past the restaurant to the left. I always said if there was someone on the runway, he was going to end up with a BF Goodrich mark on his forehead.
When I was down there, an Aztec landing 28 one day, pulled up to go over a photographer and stalled. Ended up with the gear 'displaced' and sitting on the ramp.......
that last guy lying right under the BN2 on final, wonder what his camera pic would be if the islander had landed short...
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Having a standard that pilots lose their licence after making a mistake despite doing no harm to aircraft or passengers means soon you needn't worry about a pilot surplus or pilots offering to fly for free. Where do you get your experience from?
Had a C-172 wheel come close to the noggin of a photog who was lying in the ditch just before the runway at the old King City runway. Wasn't one of my better landings.
And yes, I always looked both ways before crossing the street as I didn't want to get in any arguments with a tractor trailer.
