Tourist killed by jet-engine blast on Caribbean island

A plane lands at Princess Juliana International Airport.
(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/One News New Zealand)

A New Zealand woman was killed Wednesday on the island of St. Maarten after a jet-engine blast blew her away from the fence she was hanging onto and into a retaining wall, police said Thursday.

The area where the Princess Juliana International Airport meets Maho Beach is a popular tourist attraction, with people lining up along the fence that separates the airport from the beach to watch jets skim over beachgoers as they land and feel the extreme wind from engines when they prepare to take off. The unidentified 57-year-old woman was at the fence when she was "blown away by the jet blast and was seriously injured," police said. She was rushed to St. Maarten Medical Center, where she died.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.