‘Landing gear problem’ plane lands at Gatwick

The Boeing 747 to Las Vegas from London Gatwick took off at 11:44am this morning, but shortly after taking off, at around 13:15, it began circling above the Bristol Channel.

Flight VS43, a Virgin Atlantic flight, then returned and flew past Gatwick at 1,000ft.

On the ground, Willie Murphy took the above picture of the plane’s undercarriage, which seems to show that the plane’s far right hand side wheels had failed to drop.

The central landing gear and left hand side landing gear appear to be deployed.

Virgin Airlines told Sky News that the plane was “preparing to implement non-standard landing”.

At 15:45 the plane appeared to have made a safe landing.

Sam Pilcher, an aeronautical engineeer student, said on Twitter, after listening to a radio feed of air traffic control, that the plane “has suffered a hydraulic leak on departure & after holding over Cornwall has returned to Gatwick for a heavy landing”.

He tweeted this close-up picture of the plane’s undercarriage:

From the back of my camera the state of VIR43Es undercarriage on its fly. pic.twitter.com/HDWhwReMG1

— Samuel Pilcher (@SamPilcher) December 29, 2014