Took the 08:05 SYD-ABX ATR flight this morning and all went so well at the start. Brekky in the lounge then stroll to the gate to find no line. It's a pleasure boarding via the tarmac on a beautiful Sydney morning as you get to look around at all action of a busy airport as you wait by the back stairs. Had booked row 2 and as the door closed realised I had a shadow. As we passed the scheduled departure time the captain made the usual paperwork announcement and said we'd be on our way soon. This turned out to be true and we taxied out to the holding point on the main runway. Then we sat there for a while and as I watched a number of flights landing without any movement on our part I thought this was a little unusual. The captain then announced there was still a paperwork problem which they were sorting out and we'd be on our way soon. 10 minutes later the cabin supervisor announced that due to the problem we would be returning to the gate. So off we went and then someone was offloaded so of course their bag had to be found. Being on row 2 you could hear the ground crew sorting through the bags - "it's a blue bag with a pink ribbon. Should be easy to spot" Why someone had to get off remains a mystery. We also had to refuel as we had sat so long with the engines running. Then the engines fired up and almost immediately shut down again and the captain told us they need to do a reset. We finally got underway at 09:30 and it was a smooth and enjoyable flight with good views of an empty Lake George and Canberra. We flew past the airport then made a turn to the right over the city and began our final approach. We got pretty close then all of a sudden the engines powered up again and we headed back up. The cabin supervisor announced that it was a go around prompted by ATC and the flight crew had everything under control. After another view of Albury we finally touched down at 10.55. After engine shutdown the captain told us the go around was due to a Rex plane aborting take off.
So a bit different to usual - slightly inconvenient as I missed an early sales call but all ok in the end.
So a bit different to usual - slightly inconvenient as I missed an early sales call but all ok in the end.
