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Old 23rd Jul 2012, 15:59   #1 (permalink)
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
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Virgin B744 gear down circling south uk
Hi, anybody know what the issue is with the Virgin B744 circling south of LHR and now over south coast at 9000". Looks like it is burning off fuel and maybe dumping fuel over the sea ( above 6000") for a return, it was off to Newark?
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Old 23rd Jul 2012, 16:11   #2 (permalink)
 
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Looks like Virgin 1, G-VBIG, is possibly now setting up for a landing to the west.
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Old 23rd Jul 2012, 16:11   #3 (permalink)
 
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dunno but it looks odd tracking
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Old 23rd Jul 2012, 16:14   #4 (permalink)
 
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Just rumbled over my house with the gear down as it turned finals, unusually far out for that as I live two miles West of London City. Traffic continuing to be vectored behind so ATC appear to be not anticipating an issue, appears to be a standard return to base with a tech issue.
Last edited by Skipness One Echo; 23rd Jul 2012 at 16:15.
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Old 23rd Jul 2012, 16:16   #5 (permalink)
 
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Wearing a normal squawk - 4471
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Old 23rd Jul 2012, 16:38   #6 (permalink)
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VS001 Tech issue confirmed on Twitter
@SimonThomasSky Hi Simon, the VS1 from Heathrow to Newark airport is returning to LHR as a result of a technical issue. ^K about 1 minute ago reply
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Old 24th Jul 2012, 10:38   #7 (permalink)
 
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Landing gear would not retract.
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Old 24th Jul 2012, 10:51   #8 (permalink)
 
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Whoops - did somebody leave the gear pins in?
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Old 24th Jul 2012, 10:53   #9 (permalink)
 
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Unlikely that gear pins were in I'd say. On the plus side it's far preferable that the gear refuses to retract than it refusing to extend...
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Old 24th Jul 2012, 14:08   #10 (permalink)
 
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Quote:
Unlikely that gear pins were in I'd say.
I agree - they're pretty hard to miss.



though not impossible.

G-VBIG departed again as VIR1A a couple of hours ago, presumably with the stranded EWR passengers. So whatever the snag was, it hasn't taken too long to rectify.

If anyone's interested, here's a GE view of its Grand Tour round southern England yesterday:
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Old 24th Jul 2012, 14:17   #11 (permalink)
 
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Cool
gear pins have been left in before and no doubt they will be again at some point, on this occasion it was not the problem.
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Old 25th Jul 2012, 09:07   #12 (permalink)
 
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I'm not so sure about the gear pins being left in because as the aircraft came back to LHR from the south coast a quick look with the binos had gear up (as far as I could make out, although it was some way off by then).
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Old 25th Jul 2012, 16:28   #13 (permalink)
 
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Cool
Something broke preventing the gear from retracting, hence the return from whence it came.
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Old 25th Jul 2012, 18:22   #14 (permalink)
 
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Quote:
Something broke preventing the gear from retracting, hence the return from whence it came.
That makes sense. For the entire flight the aircraft didn't get above 215kt IAS.
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