SXM: A week in spotting heaven!
From November 10th to 17th, I was fortunate to visit one of the world’s best know plane spotting locations: Princess Juliana International Airport, better known as SXM!
It was an amazing week of photography. The absolute highlight has to be 5T-MAH, a Mauritanian Air Force Basler BT-67 on its way to the United States. I was also able to photograph JetBlue’s “New York International” special livery, and to take my own photos from the sand of the famous Maho beach.
While in Sint-Maarten, I stayed at a place called SXM Spotters Paradise Apartments. The cost was quite reasonable, and the location was hard to beat. The 2-bedroom I rented even had a large second-floor patio that offered great views of the airport. The property provides a very nice viewing area that is above the airport fence (in fact, the back of the complex is the airport perimeter fence). I could easily sit in the apartment listening to Juliana tower and go out to the platform to shoot an arriving, or departing, aircraft. There are a few other spotting locations that can be reached with a short walk: Maho beach is only 600 meters away and the El Zafiro hotel (only a few hundred meters away) also has an elevated platform that could be used even if you were not a guest. If you rent a car, several other vantage points can easily be reached.
(Click on an image to enlarge)
