That's because there is a bit of land between the start of the runway and the end of the ocean. Part of it is taken up by a road and some fences, but the space near the water has a beach on it. It's not a big beach, but it's definitely a beach.
In other words, you can sitting in the sand, soaking up some rays, and then watch a plane come right over your head as it makes its final approach to Princess Juliana International Airport. (As you'd guess, the name means the airport is located on the Netherlands' side of the island.)
Visitors try to get the feeling of the takeoffs and landings by getting as close as possible to the runway. That can be nice for photographers, but there are drawbacks In fact, people have been known to move too close - one woman got thrown into a concrete wall by the jet blast and was killed.
When we visited, the area was quite crowded. There's a bar on the airport side of the beach, and they must do a nice business of people who love to watch the planes go by. Having seen a couple of planes come in for landing from our bus, we opted not to park and fight the crowds for viewing space. Still, it was a fine experience even at that level.
This video probably is as close as you need to get to the landing of a 747 aircraft.
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