TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Aborted landings

Last 2 planes, An AA and a private have aborted landing. Not sure what the problem.

Now a WestJeet aborted.

Have you been listening to the ATC??

Seems like a wind issue - too much in the wrong direction. They're clearing some take offs and landing on runway 28 - so toward the beach.

Most if not all flights from SXM to Saba and St Barth have been canceled due to winds. It’s unclear if the wind issue is due to low wind conditions, an unfavorable wind direction, or both.

There's a 10 knot wind blowing in over Maho. An American flight made the landing from that direction but that seems to be too much of a tailwind for the others to make the landing.

Would hate to be on one of those planes! So close and not actually there!

STT has delays and diversions as well.

I can't tell how big a plane it is, but I just saw a plane land on the SXM Island Cam. Missed it on the Maho Beach cam.

There was a Sunwing that made it in too. Air France diverted. Everyone else is still holding.

Delayed to 5:05 pm. Or it runs into flight crew end of shift.

Airfrance to Guadoluope , West Jet to Antigua and AA 1912 to St . Criox VI

Typically it will be a 10 knot tailwind component maximum for the larger jets. I haven't looked at the approach charts, but I believe they can't land on runway 28.

update: Here's the chart that explains approach and missed approach: Jeppeson Chart

Spirit made the landing on 28. It was pretty shocking to watch.

Which aircraft does Spirit use? They must have done a VFR approach, as I don't recall seeing any ILS or VASI (ILS would need 3 degrees slope and those pesky mountains are in the way)

They flew in from the Hillside , kinda scary for such a big plane.

Whoa!! Another reason not to book Spirit!!!

They were flying an A321neo. I think everyone was flying VFR approaches. At least that’s all I recall hearing from ATC when I was listening.

https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/NKS100/history/20240328/1455Z/KFLL/TNCM

I’m not sure which was “worse”… spirit taking the hillside approach or American making a near limits tailing approach. I’m sure both were perfectly safe by the rules but both also make me squirm a little as a passenger. I’m sure they’re all happy to be on the right island though instead of diverted.

How many big birds were able to land today after being diverted to San Juan?

eightzerobits--agreed, rather than being somewhere else.

Delta and JetBlue are still at SJU. Air France is almost at SXM now.

Edit: Air France landed. But the airport just posted that wind conditions are expected to remain bad until 4am. So I suspect the Delta and JetBlue passenger are sleeping in Puerto Rico tonight.

Wow. Since it's not mechanical but weather related they are probably on their own for lodging expenses.

Landings are Prohibited on runway 28 at the airline I fly little 737s for. Max tailwind on runway 10 would be 10kts. Challenging day. IKD about Spirit

There’s video on FB of Spirit NKS100 landing on runway 28, what some people call “wrong way”. You can also see the track for NKS100 in your favorite flight tracking app.

Spirit landed via the Hills but for now two AAA flight delayed till in the morning and Im waiting on West Jet , prayers .

You mean AA not AAA.😉

Delta tried for 30 minutes from about 6:55 to 7:25 to land & has now headed away maybe back to San Juan. Yikes!!

That means departure won't happen either for those planning on leaving. Now they'll have to scramble for accommodations.

Scuba, I don't think the departure would've happened even if Delta landed. Those pilots must be out of hours to fly home. I would hope the return flight would've already been cancelled before the latest landing attempt. I am not a good flyer & watching multiple attempts to land tonight stressed me & I'm glad I'm not any of those today especially Spirit!! Yikes!

I went to happy hour after posting, then met a friend who is an airline pilot (but here on vacation). He spent 15 minutes online researching the approaches and didn't find a published one for that approach on runway 28 and couldn't. So he was talking about the options the pilots would have and a lot depends upon their airline's rules. Once the tailwinds died down Air France came back (I had a friend on board, who said they landed in Guadeloupe but didn't deplane and then returned here). So while the big aircraft could make it into SXM, their published corporate rules prevented them from doing so. Somehow Spirit has more lenient rules.

I've only had 1 aborted landing at PJIA. Wasn't a pleasant experience and I think I still have my wife's fingernail marks in my thigh. 😉

I have never gone through an aborted landing, but I wonder whether the passengers knew there was that possibility or not. That Spirit landing would have made me pee my pants, if I was onboard.

Video of Spirit landing on Runway 28 at SXM.

Spirit landing runway 28 - link

Spirit landing runway 28 - second video link

Nice links to that landing. Thanks.

Good morning , waiting on three flights from yesterday plus two new ones for today.