Virgin B744 gear down circling south uk

[Effohh]

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?

[Airbubba]

Looks like Virgin 1, G-VBIG, is possibly now setting up for a landing to the west.

[Skipness One Echo]

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.

[OwnNav]

Wearing a normal squawk - 4471

[pgnx]

@SimonThomasSky (http://twitter.com/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 (http://twitter.com/VirginAtlantic/status/227440787913326600) reply (http://twitter.com/?status=@VirginAtlantic%20&in_reply_to_status_id=227440787913326600&in_reply_to=VirginAtlantic)

[Flightman]

Landing gear would not retract.

[arem]

Whoops - did somebody leave the gear pins in?

[Avionker]

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...

[DaveReidUK]

Unlikely that gear pins were in I'd say.

I agree - they're pretty hard to miss.

http://www.wotol.com/images/thumbs/800x800/498691_c182b9333e23218fcfab6de8305b57e9.jpg

though not impossible. :O

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:

http://www.civilaircraftregisters.org/Mode_S_Resources/VIR1.jpg

[spannersatcx]

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.

[Effohh]

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).

[spannersatcx]

Something broke preventing the gear from retracting, hence the return from whence it came.

[DaveReidUK]

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.