A tourist has died on the Caribbean island of Sint Maarten after the blast from a jet’s engines threw her to the ground.
The woman, from New Zealand, was reportedly blown into a concrete barrier while watching an aircraft take off on the beach adjacent to the island’s Princess Juliana airport.
Tourists traditionally gather on the beach to watch aircraft land feet above their heads, with the runway only 50 metres from a fence on Maho beach.
The BBC said the woman, 57, had been holding on to the fence when a Boeing 737 took off. She is thought to have suffered head injuries after hitting a low-level barrier that separates the beach from a path. Signs nearby warn of the dangers of aircraft departing and arriving, but crowds routinely ignore these.
In a statement, local police also said they visited the area daily to discourage tourists from clinging to the runway fence.