Building a car like the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ that can achieve 304 mph (489 km/h) is an incredible achievement, but even most hardcore car-guys with only a passing interest in aircraft will probably concede it’s less incredible than an airplane’s ability to haul a couple hundred off people over thousands of miles of ocean with nothing but air between the two.
And though watching a powerful production car explode out of the blocks on a drag strip or storm past you on a fly-by can send your heart rate pounding, we have a feeling it’s nothing compared to what these visitors to the Greek island of Skiathos are experiencing.
Mostly we’re kept far away from where aircraft land and take off, but the runway at Skiathos comes so close to the Aegean Sea that planes are required to almost skim the road between the airfield and Xanemos Beach on their descent. That makes the small strip of publicly-accessible pavement at the north end of the runway a mecca for plane buffs and thrill-seeking holiday makers who, fuelled by too much beer and sun, love the idea of getting buzzed by 150,000 lbs (68,000 kg) of aircraft flying only inches above their heads.
Related: Watch This Pilot Make A Scary Emergency Landing On North Carolina Highway
This video from the YouTube channel GreatFlyer contains multiple camera angles of the same Wizzair Airbus A321 landing, some of them giving the impression that the plane is coming in at such a shallow angle that it would rip the roof clean of any full-size SUV dumb enough to park on the road. The reality is that the plane is still several meters above the ground, but the noise, air disturbance and the fact that the sun is blocked out momentarily, must make it kind of terrifying and thrilling at the same time.
Do you think you’d be able to stand dead still and look the pilot in the eye with this hulk barrelling towards you?