The shortest commercial airport runway in the world - Saba airport aka Yrausquin airport

Saba airport aka Yrausquin airport

'The airport's risky reputation arises from the airport's physical position: it is flanked on one side by high hills; and on the runway's other side and both ends, cliffs drop into the sea. Additionally, the runway at the airport is extremely short (400m) this creates the possibility that an airplane could under/overshoot the runway during landing or takeoff and end up in the sea or dashed on the rocky cliffs.
Although the airport is officially marked as closed to traffic (X), regional airline propeller aircraft are able to land there under waivers from The Netherlands Antilles' Civil Aviation Authority. The most common aircraft to land there are the Twin Otter and BN-2 Islander
Irausquin Airport can be seen from some places in Saint Martin.

Jet aircraft are unable to land at the airport, because the runway is too short (approx. 1,300 ft or 396 m). However, smaller airplanes (DHC-6, BN-2 and helicopters) are common sights there. There is a small ramp and terminal on the southwest flank of the runway. The ramp also has a designated helipad. The terminal building houses offices for Winair, immigration and security, a fire department with one fire truck and a tower. The tower is an advisory service only and does not provide air traffic control. Aviation fuel is not available on the island of Saba.

The only airline currently serving Yrausquin Airport is locally owned Winair, which operates daily flights to Sint Maarten and Sint Eustatius aboard a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter. The flight to Saint Maarten takes about twelve minutes.'

I haven't landed at this airport yet, but one day I will...

'two sapodillas and a nine inch banana'

More Guyanese soca music...

'Give me a suck on your Julie mango'

Ah happy days, Guyanese Soca - Byron Lee - 'Julie mango'

The man who's beach is not for sale

The Telegraph report the story of St Lucian Claudius Lousien who lives in a corrugated lean-to, without electricity or water, but has turned down an offer of $60m for his land. Good man...

Sunday catchup

So much news, so little time.

1. The BBC report that

"£6m government ad warning about climate change is to be investigated by watchdogs over claims it is misleading and too "scary" for children.

The Advertising Standards Authority has received 357 complaints about the Department of Energy and Climate Change's "bedtime stories" ad.

The ad aims to make adults feel guilty about the impact their carbon emissions are having on their children's future. "

it would seem that many people agree with me when I mused "The scientific community agrees – climate change is happening and human activity is almost certainly the cause."Really, all the scientific community, really, are you sure? "


2. The BBC reprt with an admirable straight face that

"Gordon Brown has promised the economy will return to growth by the turn of the year, in his first reaction to news that the UK is still in recession.

His podcast was released on the Number 10 website a day after official figures showed the economy was still shrinking."

Cynical Mrs NotaSheep wonders if this means that our increasingly apparently deluded Prime Minister has found a way to fiddle the figures...


3. London Muslims have an interesting turn of phrase in their piece entitled "Blair makes millions from war contracts through Arab Tyrants" (my emphasis):

"The War criminal Tony Blair fresh from sending British troops to their death in Iraq & Afghanistan is now cashing in on war contracts with the usual array of cowardly disco Arabs.

Not content with prostituting our country's interests for Israels and being paid handsomely, he now with his partner in crime Jonathan Powell tours the Middle East searching out ignorant Arab tyrants which isn't that difficult.

Having spent some time with UAE royalty who must have thought Blair was asking them to put a wager on the Grand National, TB hot foots it across the desert to those brave warriors in Kuwait. Remember, these were the ones who the moment they smelt Saddam Hussein's gun powder shit themselves and did a runner for the nearest departure lounge."

Interesting POV article and I site I shall visit more regularly now to see what other gems I can find.


4. Sky News are reporting the news that I and others posted about yesterday that former Labour speechwriter Mr Teather claims that "Labour ministers deliberately encouraged mass immigration to diversify Britain over the past decade". Interestingly this story has yet to be reported by the BBC.


5. THe Telegraph and others report that "Detectives have relaunched the investigation into the Lockerbie bombing and are pursuing "several" new lines of inquiry including a fresh analysis of forensic evidence". My advice to them would be to look towards Syria.


6. Britten-Norman BN2 Islander and nine passengers survive a crash landing in the Caribbean, although the pilot died. I suppose this is relieving news to Mrs NotaSheep and myself who are semi-regular passengers in just such a plane.

Happy holidays

To all you lovers thinking of wending your way to the Maldives later this year do note that around 180 men and women are awaiting flogging after being sentenced by informal Islamic sharia courts and criminal courts for having sexual intercourse outside marriage. And in case you think such sentences are not carried out then you should read this Amnesty International report.

"Amnesty International has received credible reports that an 18-year-old woman was flogged in public on 5 July this year. She received 100 lashes after being accused of having sex with two men outside of marriage. Local journalists reported the woman fainted after receiving the lashes and was taken to hospital to receive medical attention"

Paradise in the sun? Think again and take your holiday somewhere more enlightened; may I suggest the Caribbean - but not Cuba (politically anything but free) or Jamaica (somewhat homophobic).

St Barths (SBH) crash landing

crash SBH from Mo Po on Vimeo.

I've landed at St Barths airport quite a few times as a passenger not a pilot and it can be scary but that landing was started too late. In my view the pilot should have aborted and gone around again.



Thanks to Theo Spark for the spot.

Lazy journalism

According to Simon Cable in The Mail

"The singer (Bono) is currently enjoying a break at the exclusive St Barts resort in Barbados with his wife of 26 years, Ali and supermodel turned photographer Helena Christensen."

Simon Cable reports that the 48 year old singer

"revealed a rather hefty set of 'man-boobs', while his rather dashing stubble has been replaced by a thick goatee beard."

Leaving aside Bono's looks which seem fine for a man of his age, it's his politics I find repulsive, I was wondering where this exclusive St Barts resort on Barbados was. Somehow I think Simon Cable may be confusing the rather British island of Barbados with the very chic French Caribbean island of St Barths/St Barts (actually St Barthelemy) some miles away to the North West.

Maybe Simon Cable could take a leaf out of the uncredited Daily Mail Reporter who managed to report on Helena Christensen who was "spotted in a tiny purple bikini as she holidayed in St Barts.

"After all that report continues "She is in the Caribbean resort with son, Mingus, nine, U2 frontman Bono, his wife Ali Hewson and their children, Elijah, nine and seven-year-old John."

Have people learned nothing from the EU?

For reasons best known to themselves, many Caribbean countries have formed a Caribbean Community known as Caricom. Things, as you would expect, are going swimmingly as the different countries are disagreeing over freedom of movement. The government of Barbados have recently made public statements on the vexed question of the right of eligible nationals of Caricom member nations to move freely across the region.

When will these people learn from us prisoners of the EU?

Guadeloupe update

The BBC report, albeit only on their Caribbean service page that the rioting, that I first reported on on 21 February, may have ended but that:

"Union leaders in Guadeloupe have agreed to end a 44-day-old general strike but will the scars of the unrest heal anytime soon?

The announcement came after the LKP (League Against Profiteering) collective signed a deal with officials and business owners in the French department to raise workers' pay and lower the cost of basic goods.

But more worryingly, the strike exposed underlying tensions between workers on the island and a wealthy white minority, many of whom descended from slave-era colonists. "

The world is becoming a much more dangerous place, where is really safe now?

And the rioting starts...

Trouble in Guadeloupe as the Mail reports that:

"Britons are among thousands of tourists fleeing Guadeloupe after full scale urban warfare erupted on the French Caribbean island.

Trouble broke out on the island earlier last month after protesters began rioting over high prices and low wages.

But the situation escalated this week after protesters began turning on rich white families as they demanded an end to colonial control of the economy.

The troubles come at the height of the holiday season, with thousands of mainly British, French and American tourists on the paradise tropical island."

As I have been predicting for a long time, when the economy is doing well most people keep their frustrations, prejudices and anger to themselves but when they start to feel the pain of unemployment and maybe even hunger some may turn to violence. Before you write this story off as just what happens in the "third world", think on; what happens in Guadeloupe could just as easily happen in Antigua and that's a "British island". There have been riots in Greece and much of Eastern Europe, not that you would know from the BBC's lack of coverage. If we have a hot summer this year are you ready for the riots that will ensue on the streets of London, Liverpool and Manchester? Many people are angry and they will want to vent this anger.

Death in the sun

The death of Catherine Mullany and serious injury to her new husband Benjamin has affected me quite a lot. Mrs NotaSheep and myself stayed at at the same Cocos Hotel, Antigua a few years back and one of the photos of the honeymoon couple is in a place where we have photos of us. The cottages at Cocos are no less secure than others that we have stayed in in the Caribbean, although compared to a European hotel that is not saying a lot. Caribbean hotel cottages like those at Cocos often have very simple door locks but those at Cocos are also very open on the sea-side of the room, the room we stayed in had wooden shuttered doors that opened onto a balcony with a tiny lock and a bathroom that opened onto the end of the same balcony (where the open air shower was). Security in Caribbean hotels has worried us for some years to the extent that we have chosen hotels with air-conditioning rather than relying on the tradewinds and open doors. This is a real shame as sleeping with the sound of the Caribbean sea crashing against the sand or rocks is so restful. I understand that the storage of keys was not all that secure as a woman being interviewed on 5Live this morning said she saw the keys some years ago sitting on nicely numbered pegs in an unsecured room.

The Caribbean is a place of great contrasts, beautiful beaches and friendly people and Mrs NotaSheep and myself love it. Many of the hotels we have stayed at have had security guards on patrol but this is the Caribbean and the guard is as likely to be an "old retainer" type as a young fit guard.