Vegas-bound plane makes emergency landing at London airport
LONDON — A Virgin Atlantic passenger plane bound for Las Vegas safely carried out a “non-standard” landing at London’s Gatwick airport on Monday after a landing gear problem, with television pictures showing the plane intact and stationary on the runway.
“Virgin Atlantic can confirm that flight VS43 has landed safely back at Gatwick,” the company said in a statement. “Our priority now is to look after our passengers and crew.”
Television pictures showed the aircraft made a slightly bumpy, but otherwise regular landing. Passengers could not yet be seen exiting the plane, which was shown surrounded by emergency service vehicles.
Flight tracking site flightradar24.com listed the aircraft as a Boeing 747.
Data on the site and Virgin’s own website showed it had left Gatwick for Las Vegas at 1128 GMT before turning around shortly after passing the west coast of Britain.
Virgin Atlantic is 51 percent owned by its founder, British billionaire Richard Branson and 49 percent owned by U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines.
