Sunglasses blown away by jet engine: Check!

I've been in St. Maarten for about a year and a half now, but until last weekend, I had never stood behind the airline jets on the Maho beach as they prepare to take off. Well, I finally got my chance last weekend, but it was a very expensive experience! The Cleveland firefighter guy, who I spoke of in an earlier blog, came for vacation last week with his wife, and we got the chance to meet up. He had already taken a bunch of pictures of the planes coming in, so I thought it was as good a time as ever to see what all the fuss was about.

The first plane I stood behind was a JetBlue jet, which is really not that big. It made a good deal of wind, but that was about it. The next jet was American Airlines. This one was a lot bigger than JetBlue, but still not enormous. It made a lot more wind and actually kicked a bunch of crap up at me. The final jet though was a USAir plane. I'm not sure what kind of jet it was, but it was pretty damn big! Not as big as the 747 that flies in on sundays, but plenty big enough. I was purposely making sure I didn't turn my head, so I didn't lose my sunglasses. But, I was not prepared for the shit storm that the USAir jet was about to unleash on me. When it brought the engines up to power, they were not screwing around. The jetblast was hot and felt like it was blowing a portion of the runway back at me. Keep in mind, I was standing about 150 feet or so from the jet engine exhaust of a very big plane.

Well, along with having the power to blow the waves crashing onto the beach back into the ocean (and blow half the beach with it), it had the power to life my sunglasses right off my head and send them into the ocean also. They were gone before I could even realize what happened. At this moment, they are likely being worn by some very lucky shark. I looked for them for a minute or two, but it was clear that they were long gone by the time the jet was in the air. Unfortunately, I couldn't really turn my head right away to look for them, due to the small rocks that were being thrown at me.

It was an experience that I'm glad I've had (it's kinda the thing to do here), but I do not know why anyone would be dumb enough to stand behind the 747 when it leaves. I cannot even imagine what those things must kick up at you. Below are two pictures. The first is when I had my sunglasses on. The second is after they had been taken away, and I was trying to shield my eyes from the rocks. The guy next to me (closest to the camera) also had his glasses blown into the ocean, fyi. If you ever choose to experience this, do not wear sunglasses (I'd recommend safety glasses instead).