Several years back coming into ATL; plane is just off the runway...I don't know, maybe 100-200 feet...and the captain guns the engines and and takes off to circle back around. He comes on the intercom after we clear the airport and says that a small plane hadn't cleared the runway or had taxied onto the runway...something to that effect.

Anyway, after we circle around and land, the FA comes on the intercom and says, "And we'd like to congratulate Captain So-and-So as today he is retiring and this was his last flight."

I'm thinking he was just doing a "fly by" of the tower ala Tom Cruise in Top Gun. I mean, even if it was against regulations, what are they going to do? Fire him?

Just wondering if anyone else thinks he might have been doing a "fly by" or whether there really was some intereference from another plane.