Well Done Virgin Flight VS43

What heroes!

All credit to the crew of Virgin Atlantic flight VS43 yesterday.  

The Boeing 747 flight leaving London Gatwick at 11:40 yesterday en route to Las Vegas had a problem with one of its sets of undercarriage that wouldn't properly lock down.

Flight tracking shows that initially the flight followed its scheduled flight path until it had almost past Cornwall's west coast when it was seen to follow a circular path to burn off fuel before heading back towards Gatwick.

The plane with 450 people on board then entered a further fuel burn off phase over Sussex and the coast (at several times almost directly overhead us at Luggage UK), before making a text book landing at Gatwick.  Cabin crew reportedly succeeded in keeping passengers relatively calm even though they were instructed to go into the brace position for landing. 

Passengers on board praised the skill of the flight crew.  Well done to all involved.

Following the touchdown at around 16:00 Gatwick's runways were closed until around 19:00 while the plane was checked and moved.