Skiathos Island National Airport in Greece is very similar to Princess Juliana International Airport on the island of Saint Martin: the approach to the runway is butted up to a coastal road and a beach, and the proximity between aircraft and areas outside of the airport perimeter are exceptionally close. This makes for spectacular close-range photographs of aircraft as they fly in and out, but one very notable downside is that humans and anything on the beach are subjected to the intense jet blasts as the same aircraft take off. These aren’t regional jets, either, these are full-sized Boeing and Airbus pieces, the kind that push near 40,000 lbs. of thrust and can do serious damage in a matter of seconds simply by jet blast.
For whatever reason, the owner of the blue hatchback decided to leave the doors and rear gate open as a Monarch Airlines Boeing 757 was gearing up for takeoff. As the plane sits at idle, everything is fine, but once the jetliner spools up the two big engines, everything decends into an artificial sandstorm and the rear gate, wide open, is bent and folded flat against the roof. Had the car been any closer to the plane, there could have been more damage…or the car could have simply have been blown into the ocean.
Not that this is news, but people are idiots.
That’s one insurance claim that you know got passed around the whole office.
Its pretty incredible the force is that high at that distance.
These tourists need to find a better travel agent for the next vacation.
I am a Boeing engineer and this is a great demonstration of what jet-engine blast can do. And the 757 is not regarded as a truly “large” airliner like a 777 or 747.
2 things cross my mind here…
1. I bet it was a rental, so who cares about the car and
2. If that was a 747 taking off the whole damn car would have been gone no just the hatch!
They’ll sue the airline in 3,2,1. ;-D
I used to be employed contantly repairing damage to service vehicles at a local airport, a lot of the damage was to vehicle doors and pillars being bent or even torn apart by jet wash, often the same vehicle several times. I often suggested the money spent repairing them would be put to better use by modifying the doors to a slide system similar to sliding van doors. Fell on deaf ears. Once again, proves some people are idiots.