Flying into St Maarten

I have been flying into St. Maarten Airport for over 30 years and they never ever installed an ILS (Instrument Landing System) a basic approach guidance tool: The first pax jet ditched at sea was a diversion from St. Maarten because they could not get on the deck with the stupid NDB approach. (ALM flight 980)
No surprise the bridge has not been widened either, the same videos of yachts crashing into the sides of this bridge has been around since I discovered the internet.
The Dutch folks need to take over, the natives are going lazy.

All true, but I’ll take a good old ILS any day, if low on gas, ride it all the way down to the deck, then go the bar and have a strong one.
Half of those DC-9 pax could have been alive with an ILS. (“Instrument Landing System” for the seafarers, although quite a few dudes here are aviators, even Capt. J if memory serves me right)

Yup, done a few of those, once with the FAA and NTSB onboard in St. Thomas
after I picked ‘em up in St. Barths investigating an accident for the company
I worked for. (Virgin Air. Not to be confused with Bransons outfit, in fact he paid of the name so there be no confusion among the pax calling to book tickets. New name was Air St. Thomas)
With the authorities in the Piper Aztec we approached STT when a thunderstorm rolled across the airport, low-no visibility: go around, come back, another squall, go around again. Gas gets lower, feds getting a little paler for each go-around, but no way I was going to bust VFR minimums with all these
important inspectors riding front row.
Made it down with fuel reserves ok on the third try. (Yes, had gas and plan B, Spanish Virgin Islands, STX. All good)
Went to the bar in St, Thomas and had a few drinks that evening, long day.

Remember that crash really well: I was in the airplane behind the Avianca 707:
(Worked for Evergreen International Airlines back then, copilot on a 747 freighter, DOD work and commercial cargo.)
Lousy day at JFK: We were in holding patterns for 90 minutes behind the 707
that was about to run out of gas: They were on fumes, but being macho Latinos, they did not stop in Miami for gas on the way from Columbia to New York. (We came from Chicago, we knew the JFK weather was down on its ass so we put on 5 hours reserve fuel, hence we were bored to death circling holding patters behind the 707)
They were cleared for the approach but had neither flight director nor auto pilot, got off the ILS and had to shoot a missed approach. Going base and downwind, they ran out of fuel and crashed. No fire, because no gas.
Some pax survived, some died and were found to be “mules”, carrying condoms with cocaine in their intestines.
Long story, but the Captain did not speak English, the young inexperienced Copilot was on the radios: The Captain told the Copilot to declare an emergency, the F/O instead decleared a Priority, at the time there was no such thing in the FAA and FCC vocabulary and they did not recognize it: “Emergency or Nothing”.
The instant those guys crashes, we were cleared to land.
Once on the taxiways, in the rain at night, everything stopped, big ground hold. We were allowed to taxi to the gate, but 50-60 planes waiting to take off were told to stop and the airport was closed.
We got in the operations office a few minutes later and saw on the news that a 4-engine Boeing crashed close to JFK.
We jumped on the phones to call the family and tell them it was not us, we are safe and sound. (Also on a 4-engine Boeing)
Long day, went to the bar and had a few drinks that day evening..

wow, stepped on sore, or sour toe didn’t I?
Here is another case study of Latino Macho, not stopping for fuel.
https://www.thecut.com/2016/12/why-would-a-pilot-let-his-plane-run-out-of-fuel.html
Sure white dudes did it too, look at this thread: DC-9 ditched at sea.

Ha, you knew Paul?
Quite the character. I was his assistant Chief Pilot and a company instructor/ check airman. Checked out on all 5 types of his airplanes.
Never dull, but no future at that company, either you crash and die, or lose your license. Hard work however, even fighting to get paid was interesting. Had 5 flying jobs in the Virgin Islands, while living on a sailboat.
(Back to boating now, Carl says thanks, about time)
If one of these outfits went BK, I pulled the anchor and sailed to another island, jumped in my 9’ Dyer Dhow dink and rowed to shore with a rolled up resume in my shirt pocket. Usually hired on the spot: Came from Alaska, flew bush up there summer and winter without bending metal, flying in the Caribbean was easy after that, and warmer. Good old days.
Back to boating, sorry for the diversion, probably booze related..

But of course, been there, done that, 19 flying jobs with big and small outfits:
Worked for the worlds smallest airline (One DC-3: Virgin Island International Airways, and for the worlds biggest airline AA, 941 Jets)
Now doing boats: www.odincharters.com
Come sail with me. ⚓️

Yeah, fun job hauling those DC-3s around: Felt like I was in a movie from the 1940s: Tailwheel airplane, steep incline to get to the cockpit, big wide pax seats, no overhead bins.
Checklists in the cockpit was all called for with hand signals, too noisy to talk, or be heard.
Made Captain on the -3s when I was 29, fun days and probably at the peek of my flying abilities, it has gone downhill ever since with more automated planes with glass cockpits, auto throttles, flight computers and all that..