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Woman killed by jet engine blast while watching plane take off

Updated on: 14 July,2017 11:30 AM IST  |  St Maarten
mid-day online correspondent |

Tragedy struck at the Caribbean island of St Maarten, when a woman from New Zealand died while watching a plane take off as a result of a jet engine blast. Plane-spotting is a popular tourist activity at the Princess Juliana international airport

Woman killed by jet engine blast while watching plane take off

Jet blast death
The deceased woman was watching the plane take-off by clinging close to a fence near the airport


Tragedy struck at the Caribbean island of St Maarten, when a woman from New Zealand died while watching a plane take off as a result of a jet engine blast. The practice of plane-spotting is a popular tourist activity at the Princess Juliana international airport, where they pose for videos and selfies as aircraft fly overhead.


The deceased 57-year-old woman, who was clinging close to a fence near the airport, was severely injured on Wednesday as the plane took off. She died a short while later. St Maarten tourist director Rolando Brison, has told The New Zealand Herald, that security tapes would be reviewed to ascertain, what exactly took place. The woman's family were visited and notified about her passing.


The New Zealand native was propelled backwards causing her to hit her head on the concrete. She was standing a fence near runway 10 when the Boeing 737, which had a jet engine blast took off.

Despite warnings that jet engine blasts are lethal, the Princess Juliana international airport, termed as "the world's scariest" is a popular tourist attraction due to this, where planes fly dangerously at low altitude, due to runway being just 2,180m (1.4 miles).

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