Virgin Atlantic jet makes emergency landing in London

A Virgin Atlantic passenger plane landed safely at London’s Gatwick Airport after discovering a problem with part of its main landing gear, reports BBC.

Virgin flight VS43 with 447 passengers and 15 crew was travelling from Gatwick to Las Vegas when it had to return. The Boeing 747 circled over southern England for several hours dumping fuel before making a bumpy but safe landing just before 16:00 GMT.

Gatwick’s runway is shut to all air traffic causing severe delays.

Aircraft due to land at Gatwick were diverted to other London airports, while departing flights were delayed. Passengers were advised to check the airport’s website or contact their airline.

Flashing lights of emergency vehicles could be seen close to the plane, which appeared to have landed without its full set of landing gear.

Ambulances and fire-and-rescue crews had been on standby as the plane circled the airport in the hours after it took off for the US late on Monday morning.

Before the successful conclusion to the incident, Virgin announced the plane would be carrying out a “non-standard landing procedure” at Gatwick airport.

Eyewitnesses reported the jet was flying at relatively low altitude and the pilot appeared to be trying to “shake” the landing gear down.

Nick Hughes, who was on board, said the crew made several attempts to try to free the landing gear.

“They put the thrust on quite heavily and then dipped down, I think, to try and loosen the gears but obviously nothing kind of worked.

“They gave it every opportunity before they tried the emergency landing. All credit due to the crew and the staff and of course the pilots because the landing was probably one of the softest landings I’ve ever had.”
Another passenger, Hardeek Desai, said: “The staff were trying to keep everyone calm but a few passengers were a bit panicky. One of the crew came out to the seating area to reassure everyone everything was going to be OK.