Airliner forced to make 'non standard' landing at Gatwick

A Virgin Atlantic passenger plane has carried out what has been described as a “non-standard landing procedure” at Gatwick airport because of a technical issue with one of the landing gear, the airline said.

The airline confirmed that Virgin flight VS43, which was destined for McCarran international airport Las Vegas was forced to return to Gatwick due to an unspecified problem with the aircraft's undercarriage. Eyewitnesses have reported that one of the five landing gears on the Boeing 747 jumbo jet had failed to deploy." 

One Brighton plane spotter had told a local news website that:  "it appears outer starboard main gear not entirely down. Still has three sets of main gear down."

In spite of this problem, Virgin Atlantic flight VS042 landed safely, an airport spokeswoman has confirmed.

The spokeswoman added that the aircraft will now be checked over as part of standard procedure and that all passengers will be disembarked. 

Earlier, the spokeswoman had confirmed that the aircraft was "preparing to implement a non-standard landing procedure at Gatwick airport. ” The Gatwick airport representative has confirmed that the flight, which departed Gatwick at around 11:45am local time, returned after it developed a technical fault.

Emergency services were on standby at the airport, but thankfully their services were not required.

In order to burn off fuel, the aircraft  flew a circular route off the South Coast for four hours before landing.