TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Runway yesterday

Sooo this was an oh s**t moment on the runway yesterday.
It’s a plane boss! Yep a big plane! 😬😳

OH WOW! Looks like a showdown. Or maybe a game of chicken.

Looks like a fake picture?

Were they both moving? Or was the plane that appears to be departing (facing away from the camera) holding waiting for the taxing plane to come back down the runway?

That was live on the YouTube webcam on my TV yesterday. I took picture of it. American had landed & was coming back up runway to park (and they did pull in) & KLM pulled out heading down the runway for takeoff ( which most of the time they takeoff near the beach end). KLM did carry on down & leave. Meanwhile see the tip of a wing of a plane lower left corner that's WestJet waiting to proceed at the beach end of runway. Yikes moment for sure. Wish I couldve heard air traffic control at that point.

KLM looked stopped. American moving to turn in at gate

If KLM was stopped/holding/taxing in to position then it’s perfectly normal. If KLM was starting a takeoff roll with another plane on the runway then that’s very different.

Presumably he knew which gate AA was heading to as he was blocking at least 1 where he sat? I've just never seen 2 big ones facing each other quite close.

This happened before on runway 10 back on June 5 of this year.
Two American Airlines jets taxied up nose to nose.

Drphilsxm

The planes are not really as close to each other as this photo would suggest. Telephoto lenses compress images, shortening the perspective. The effect is especially noticeable when photographing crowds with telephoto lenses, as it causes the attendance to appear greater than it really is by scrunching the people closer together than they actually are standing or sitting. Sometimes it's done intentionally, sometimes not. I once was a press photographer. I know.