After LCA 2009, I boarded Virgin Blue flight DJ707 from HBA to BNE with a bunch of fellow geeks. The flight took off on schedule and thing were fine for about an hour and then we noticed some commotion at the back. Abbie, the lead stewardess was pushing a man to the front and just as he passed by our row of seats, he turned back and cussed at another stewardess who was at the back.

I knew things wouldn't be okay..because the guy seemed pretty arrogant. The put him right at the front of the plane. The German lady next to be suspected that he was a terrorist and we had a little laugh. The captain came out and tried speaking some sense to the guy and he didn't seem to care or understand.

And then the plane banked to the right and I knew we weren't heading to Brisbane anymore. The cabin crew handled the situation very well, and left out the first 3 rows. The rest of the rows were individually informed that the plane was being diverted to Sydney because of the drunk guy in the front and that they didn't want to risk anyone's safety.

I don't think the bloke had a clue were landing in Sydney. It was a lovely time in the evening though, just after sunset. The city lights were on and by sheer luck, the runway we were landing on made sure I could see the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge from the plane. Awesome sights indeed :) The captain never announced the city and the cabin crew just said "We'll be landing shortly" and as soon as we reached the gate, not a single soul stood up ;) The Police came in and the chap left, without offering any resistance (found out later from the news that he did cause some trouble outside the plane). The captain allowed us to use our phones to let people waiting in Brisbane know that we will be delayed.

We took off from Sydney after the Police had taken statements (about 45 mins later) and everyone clapped for the crew. We also got to watch free TV (it's paid otherwise) for the rest of the flight. w00t!

I'd have no second thoughts about flying with Virgin Blue again and hats off to the crew for handling the situation very well.

So that's how I "visited" Sydney for free :) I plan to return someday and actually get out of the plane and go see the place.

I've caught up with a decent number of photos from the trip, Hobart photos : http://is.gd/oq2f