Yep, twas a Monarch A300 bound for CHQ. I know. I was on it. Takeoff was pretty
noisy down the back where I was, but the noise and vibration declined to
something close to normal once power was reduced. The only nasty
bit was the unpleasant smell of burned bird that drifted through the cabin during
the takeoff roll. Return to MAN was uneventful and nicely handled by all
concerned.
Thanks are due to the folks who turned out on their days off to fly us to HER
that night on a replacement A330. Boos and hisses are due to Swissport for checking
in the same two pax twice throwing out the tally and delaying our eventual departure
by a further two hours over the 12 already incurred