Aircraft to London airports were hit by delays and diversions after a Virgin Atlantic flight was forced to make a dramatic emergency landing yesterday (Monday).
Passengers, some of them in tears, had to get into the brace position for landing after a set of wheels failed to drop on a flight.
The plane, which had left Gatwick at 11:30 to fly to Las Vegas, was being closely watched by media and flight trackers as it circled for several hours to burn off fuel.
Minute-by-minute updates were posted on Twitter until the aircraft returned to land at Gatwick Airport at 16:00.
Nick Hughes, head of sales at Attraction World, was on board and tweeted: "Thankfully landed safe. I don’t recommend emergency landings."
Gatwick’s runway was shut causing delays and flight diversions to other London airports. Gatwick re-opened at 19:00 but disruption continued into the evening.
On Twitter this morning, Gatwick Airport said operations were back to normal but invited passengers to tweet if they had any questions.
The Boeing 747, with up to 447 passengers and 17 crew on board, appeared to be flying with only three quarters of its landing gear down after a set of wheels failed to drop.
Reports claim the plane made at least one low-level pass over the airport so engineers could look at the problem.
A Virgin Atlantic spokesman said: "We can confirm that flight VS43 has landed safely back at Gatwick. Our priority now is to look after our passengers and crew."
President Sir Richard Branson tweeted: "Well done @VirginAtlantic pilots & team for safe & skilful landing of #VS43. Thoughts with passengers & crew, thanks for support & patience."
