A Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747-400 was forced to perform an emergency landing at London Gatwick Airport after main landing gear issue.
On Dec. 29, a Boeing 747-400, registration G-VROM, operating as flight VS43 from London Gatwick to Las Vegas, suffered a Main Landing Gear failure immediately after take off.
After two low passes and circling for a few hours over southern England dumping fuel, the Boeing 747 performed a safe, bumpy, landing at Gatwick, with the still retracted right outboard MLG, just before 16.00 GMT.
Here are the best videos of the mishap we’ve found online.
David Cenciotti is a freelance journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.
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5 Comments
Gee in an emergency you’d think you’d want a smoooooooth landing. OH……And only ONE landing. DOH.
Came in a tad hot,
Actually the pilot did a “bouncer” to try and force the stuck gear down. The passengers described it as smooth. My guess is they barely felt the second touchdown. The runway was blocked for three or four hours I believe, it opened again same evening.
Made me nervous to see the jet settling toward the right side, glad nothing made contact on the rollout (except for the tires, of course).
Gee in an emergency you’d think you’d want a smoooooooth landing. OH……And only ONE landing. DOH.
Came in a tad hot,
Actually the pilot did a “bouncer” to try and force the stuck gear down. The passengers described it as smooth. My guess is they barely felt the second touchdown. The runway was blocked for three or four hours I believe, it opened again same evening.
Made me nervous to see the jet settling toward the right side, glad nothing made contact on the rollout (except for the tires, of course).
Looks like the wing gear doors are closeD. DOH