Virgin landing gear incident LGW!
 

There's a Virgin jumbo holding at Mayfield with what appears to be some of its gear down. Very clear day and it's quite low.

Has been over Wivelsfield/Haywards Heath twice, much lower than other traffic. Nosewheel down and flaps extended?

Indeed, it is low at around 2,000ft. Seems it has already been out to sea and back and even executed an approach.

http://s3.postimg.org/twmcl1ttb/image.jpg

http://s29.postimg.org/s6u2w1uz7/Capture.jpg

https://twitter.com/hashtag/VS43?src=hash

Right wing landing gear issues aparrently

Better pic here

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B6B6dM4IUAAe5zj.jpg

After another 1,000ft fly by, it's turned towards the South Coast, the usual spot for fuel dumping it would seem. Doesn't sound like the gear issue has been resolved, I suspect the next approach will be to land, hoping the gear stays up. Emergency vehicles now in attendance.

It went outbound at 11.45 .. it looks like one side of the gear is not down when it went past here earlier

Apparently one gear down and one up - emergency services heading to LGW.

Just came over me. Still no right main gear down.

My neighbour has a family member working at LGW. Says plane was in the hangar yesterday for a similar issue.

Right gear won't drop it would appear?

Just passed over my house again nose wheel definitely down and one set of main gear definitely down.

Heading out to sea again.

A further photo a few minutes ago from Twitter user @SamPilcher

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B6CDIG3CMAAqLLC.jpg

Virgin Atlantic gear fault
 

I'm following it on Planefinder, as a pilot I feel for them but cannot just turn it off.
It does make you wonder about instant gratification, to some extent I wish I didn't know - what I am doing is nothing else but rubbernecking I suppose.

It's still orbiting over Brighton.

Close up

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B6CDIG3CMAAqLLC.jpg:large

Whats the protocol for this.

Wheels up ?

or

Wheels down ?

Never wheels up, land on the remaining ones, much safer than engines on ground scraping along wheels up like a fantasy movie.
Reduce weight as much as possible, standard operation in this case.
The fly by could be to allow tower controllers to see (and possibly engineers invited to observe from tower view) what the actual problem is as in the flight deck indication may be that gear is not up but equally not down, unable to establish in what position the gear actually is.

Thats the normal position for them to be in.

VS43
 

The LH wing gear is supposed to look like that. Normal tilt position.

All available gear down - with one wing gear up it will wobble a bit and will need to be towed off the runway - we used to practice this in the sim on a regular basis and with the light wind conditions not a problem.

fa2fi, to put things into perspective, I have seen multiple footage of emergency landings and ditchings since 1956. No FR24 then. The media just had other ways of obtaining information in those days.

Well done to the Crew of VS 43..must have been a worrying few hours for them

VS43
 

BBC just showed the landing. Great job by the crew. Definitely a positive touchdown on the LH side!

Not sure that I see the link between being over 60 and being useless. If and when Learmount speaks rubbish, then criticise and rebuff him intellectually and technically, but kindly refrain from slagging off someone who oft times speaks a lot of common sense just because he is over an arbitrary age limit set by you.

BBC website

People were tracking the seemingly erratic movements of the plane in real time via smartphone apps like FlightRadar24, which collects radar data. Its website was down because of the volume of users.

people were tracking erratic movements on a site that was down?:eek:

Keep calm people. Irrespective of our opinions on the sad state of the media, in this case all they can show are calm professionals at work, perfectly executing a recovery and bringing 400+ folks safely home.

For me they can re-run this all day long - the public will be, (for a brief while), more respectful of what it takes to keep them safe, and this is a positive fillip for all people in this industry.

:D

Closeup
 

This from Twitter user Andrey ‏@AndreyIontchev

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B6CM6m-IYAAI0zR.jpg

Regarding press coverage, I'm surprised the Mediterranean ferry fire didn't get more attention. Potentially a much more sticky situation developing in darkness. Respect to all those who had obviously planned though the night to move in at dawn.

Well Done to all the Virgin Crew,
A safe outcome and the passengers already praising all the crew for a non-normal well handled. Great Job !


and to the broadcasters?

the Aircraft is a 777? Really?
it was the left wheel? Really?
belly flops on Runways? Really?


obviously there is NO quality control with information being broadcast these days....

Wake up Sky News, just not good enough !
emotional reporting as opposed to factual....

Hats off to Virgin Crew and thank God it ended safe and well.

For those saying it is sitting on it's engines

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B6CWcWCCcAAhTve.jpg:large

Excellent work from the flight crew!

I think this just goes to show the speed of social media and how fast news spreads around the internet and onto our TV screens.

I've found this video which shows the landing of the aircraft (from BBC News).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzWnNSlIjzU

Once again, very glad everything has turned out good!

Listing a bit?

Well nothing is getting into Gatwick as aircraft are diverting to other airports

When the Beeb said it was to be a "non-standard landing procedure" I thought it would land upside down to save the u/c....

Many congrats to the crew who earned their whole life's pay in one day. The pax have them to be very grateful for.

VS43 Landing
 

Great Photo RP122. Shame they couldn't have uploaded it to the Capt.
Looks like Body Gears came down OK on Hydraulics when selected down as U/C Doors are up and faired. System 1 from memory.
Wing Gears poss. dropped manually as L & R Doors are still down and not stowed. System 4 from memory. Looks as though the R/H Wing Gear has fouled on it's Gear Door and hung up. Most likely the Door didn't clear the down coming wheel. There is a bumper pad that the wheel should contact and push it out of the way on a manual drop, but with a roll on or maybe flight loads, it baulked the full drop of the door and maybe caught the Gear.
Should be able to Tow once the Pax are off. Depends on who is managing the project there at the moment and the level of drama.
We have dropped the nitrogen px out of the L/H Wing Oleo a little in the past and it should level up OK. Can be towed gently in that condition if not too much fuel on and balanced in the Tanks.
Nice landing and good job by the Crew I would say.
Saved a lot more damage...:ok:

It will be interesting to hear what caused the problem. Presumably the plane returned because the gear did not retract properly after takeoff. Subsequently the right wing gear did not extend properly. Probably fouled on a gear door.

The 747 undercarriage system has a lock that stops the gear lever from being raised. The lock will clear when the main gear is tilted and the air/ground switches are happy it is in the air with the steerable body gear aligned.The flight crew are able to override the lock once airborne if it does not release as a way of getting the gear up. I seem to remember they suggested using a pen to move the latch to stop your finger getting trapped. However if the gear are not in the correct position when manually overriding the lock and raising the gear this can lead to the gear jamming and graunching against the gear doors. Interesting to know if the crew had to override the gear lock once airborne.

Apart from the Pan Am incident in SFO Where the aircraft was badly damaged by hitting the opposite end light stanchions on takeoff jamming some of the gear I cannot remember any other incident where a 747 has failed to get a main gear down. At least it did not sit on its tail like the Pan Am.

Does anyone know of any other incident where a 747 could not get a main gear down?

I'm not. No video worthy of showing, so the news editors aren't interested and that goes for all news these days, sadly. Much better on a slow news day to rush some film crews to LGW because there's time in hand. On a normal news day it would have merited 30 seconds at best.

Not to detract in any way from a job extremely well done by the crew :ok: