Las Vegas-bound Virgin Atlantic flight VS43 makes emergency landing at Gatwick – live
A Virgin Atlantic passenger plane travelling from London to Las Vegas made a ‘non-standard landing procedure’ at Gatwick airport because of a technical issue with one of the landing gears
4.11pm GMT
Sky News has a live video stream from Gatwick Airport, showing the aircraft surrounded by emergency service vehicles. Passengers don’t appear to have disembarked yet.
4.06pm GMT
Virgin Atlantic confirms flight VS43 landed safely:
“Virgin Atlantic can confirm that the plane has landed safely at Gatwick. Our priority now is to look after our passengers.”
4.02pm GMT
The Guardian’s transport correspondent, Gwyn Topham, has just filed this on the Virgin Atlantic plane landing:
A Virgin Atlantic flight has landed safely at Gatwick after being forced to return when pilots identified a problem with the landing gear en route to Las Vegas.
The airport had emergency services on standby as a precaution after pilots on flight VS43 prepared to implement a “non-standard landing procedure”.
3.54pm GMT
Virgin Atlantic flight VS042 has landed safely at Gatwick after experiencing problems with its landing gear, an airport spokeswoman has confirmed.
The spokeswoman told the Guardian that the aircraft will now be checked over as part of standard procedure and that all passengers will be disembarked.
3.54pm GMT
Plane with landing gear problem returns to Gatwick http://t.co/5OIxWYccqs pic.twitter.com/HFQm7s9aCA
3.50pm GMT
We will have confirmation shortly from Gatwick airport and Virgin Atlantic officials, but the website flight tracking site Flightradar24 reports that the aircraft has landed safely:
#VS43 just landed safely at Gatwick Airport! pic.twitter.com/MnTaKOr9IF
3.48pm GMT
Eyewitnesses near Gatwick report that flight VS43 is to land imminently.
Aeronautical engineering student Sam Pilcher has tweeted:
VIR43E next to land with 16 miles to run, 5 minutes out. Fire crews in place.
3.45pm GMT
Aeronautical engineering student Sam Pilcher has tweeted the below picture purportedly of the VS43:
From the back of my camera the state of VIR43Es undercarriage on its fly. pic.twitter.com/HDWhwReMG1
3.41pm GMT
The plane has reportedly been circling off the south coast of England for approximately two hours, according to eyewitnesses.
The photograph above shows flight VS43. Former BA pilot Alastair Rosenschein has told Sky News that the image suggests that the landing gear underneath the aircraft’s right-hand wing does not appear to be functioning.
3.39pm GMT
3.37pm GMT
3.35pm GMT
3.30pm GMT
A Virgin Atlantic passenger plane “is preparing to implement a non-standard landing procedure at Gatwick airport “because of “a technical issue with one of the landing gears”, the airline said.
Flight VS43, which was en route to Las Vegas, turned back to the West Sussex airport after taking off this morning.
Source: Guardian Transport
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