Originally Posted by
kevinflyaway
Also the crew were disembarking, which was weird because the crew was just fresh from AUA..
That's normal - I know this from chatting to the crew on our recent visit. The crew from AMS gets off in AUA. The previous day's crew gets on it AUA for the short hop to BON. There is another crew change at BON for the flight back to AMS.
I thought it was weird that a fire truck was standby next to the strip, but nothing was said to the passengers on the plane....
This will have been what's known as a "local standby" - the lowest form of alert. You call a local standby for minor problems which are unlikely to turn into an emergency. The crew may not not even have known that ATC decided to call a local standby - it's entirely at ATC's discretion. It's a precaution.