St. Maarten Private Eye

Rest Assured. Aircraft report to the tower of the destination airport way before they start their descend for landing. The tower gives weather updates, directions for speed and altitude and sequence for landing. Pilots of departing aircraft listen to the same frequency and hear conversations between Tower and aircraft on approach. They are aware. We can rule out that commercial carriers like KLM do not report to the tower. The tower therefore knows what traffic is approaching. The tower also has radar and their screens show direction, airspeed and altitude of planes in the area. Commercial aircraft have TCAS which is a traffic collision avoidance system independent of air traffic control. It warns pilots of the presence of other aircraft flying which may present a threat. Finally, pilots have eyes. They must see a clear runway at decision height or else they abort landing and go around. You can rest assured that things were under control from all ends.