An inbound Virgin Atlantic A340-60 passenger aircraft to Nigeria from London Heathrow Airport made an emergency landing at Gatwick Airport following technical fault with the aircraft.
It was learnt that the captain of the aircraft took a decision to return to base more than one hour into the flight.
The passengers were, however, taken to a four-star hotel in line with the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) stipulation.
It was not clear why the captain decided to return to base when he could have made an emergency landing in the nearest airport.
Kudirat Scott-Igbene, Virgin Atlantic spokesperson in Lagos, confirmed that VS651 returned to Gatwick on the March 18, 2013 due to a technical issue, adding that engineers attended to the problem and rectified it
