Eventually dawn came. Thanks to crossing the International Date Line it was now Sunday, May 2. We had begun a gliding descent. The Australian coastline slid into view. Sydney Heads were clearly visible, but the harbour and city were blanketed in fog. I spotted the Centrepoint Tower, but nothing else of Sydney was visible. We were still quietly bleeding off altitude.
I fully expected to hear our captain announce: "The bad news is we cannot land in Sydney, the good news is we are going directly to Melbourne." I wondered, after a 14 hour flight, how much fuel was left, and where it could get us to?
Still gliding, we made several turns, which revealed glimpses of patches of suburban housing below. This fog did have some thin spots.
The "Fasten Seat Belts" sign came on and we descended into the fog. Suddenly street and car lights were flashing past just below our wings, then, in a feather soft landing, we were on the ground with a very aggressive reverse thrust decelerating us.
As we disembarked one of the air hostesses told me that we had very nearly not made it down.
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Text, images and audio Copyright to Andrew Rennnie, 2010