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This is the flight many of us travel to Vegas on.

Fingers crossed all ends well.



http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/553657-vs43.html

coverage on sky news just now.

Not interested unless it floats on the sea, sorry

It left Gatwick 4 hours ago, circled above Devon, returned to Gatwick, & has been holding above Gatwick at 1,200 feet for some time now.

"Police are about to shut the M23, there are over 20 Ambulances. This is it; #VS43 is to complete an emergency landing at London Gatwick."

Virgin atlantic says flight VS43 will implement "non-standard landing procedure"

Wow, now this is an exciting news story!  Not great if you're on the plane though watching all the news stories.

They seem to be saying it will be a comfortable, if not unusual landing, for the passengers.  The 'experts' seem fairly relaxed about it all.

:)

Landed?

Looks like it.

Plane landed now - unusual restraint from news channels in that there was a live feed from the airport but they clearly decided not to show the plane until it had landed in case of a crash.

I would definitely be absolutely fine if on an aircraft there were such an announcement. Absolutely fine. Not a jibbering wreck in the slightest. No siree.

Anyone know any good deals with transatlantic ferries?

They've shown the landing now, and I'm sure I've been on a plane that have done worse landings.  Very nice job.

Saw it circling above me for a good while earlier

Amazed how low it seemed

Glad it landed fine sky news seemed dissapointed that it had mine

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B6CNyiECYAI2e0C.jpg)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/picturesoftheday/11315195/Pictures-of-the-day-29-December-2014.html

Gatwick flights now being delayed as their only runway is now occupied by the VS43 plane.  Should help Gatwick's case for a second runway...

2 greens 1 red, glad we were stuck with 3 greens 2 weeks back ha.

Right off to troll my fave Dail mail journo

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

Thinking the same, for those of us in West London.

It's quite incredible such a major airport only has the one runway for so long. Regards of the London expansion debate, surely Gatwick is a shoe in to get another runway.

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

Bugger! I miss all the excitement.

Would someone explain those photos to me, please? What am I looking at that's wrong? Also, would they explain whatever Mr Flush said?

Thanks.

What was the upshot of that American plane which landed in the river (hudson?) in New York?

The pilot was lauded a hero, but a while later there was speculation he made the crash landing without due reson for kicks and good times.

Was there a full investigation?

No mention made of the pilot possibly ditching for other reasons on the wiki page.

Maybe I just read the wrong news stories :)

There you go, Mr H.

I happened to have the page bookmarked.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Airways_Flight_1549

The plane isn't horizontal due to a few missing wheels.
I guess Flushy means the landing gear lights in the cockpit....on his recent flight drama ,all the wheels were stuck down?

Yeah in the cockpit of any aircraft with retractable gear you have 3 lights, if they are off the gear is stowed and locked, red they are in transit, green they are down and locked.

As you can see in that pic the right wing strut isn't extending hence when it is on the ground it is not level. Luckily the fuselage strut came down so could support it, obviously if both had failed on one side you have a rather awkward problem.

Right. Thanks, chaps.

Felt like I was watching a film where everyone else in the cinema gasped and I couldn't understand why.

How 'easy' would a landing have been if both had failed, or say all of the landing gear was stuck and wouldn't come down?  Obviously, it wouldn't have been a standard landing, but they can land these things even under exceptional circumstances - can't they?

Might as well have carried on to the planned destination and let the passengers be where they want to be, seeing as they were going to fly around for hours and, presumably, were only in danger when landing.

Hmm think I'd rather be in hospital in the care of the NHS rather than at the mercy of the travel insurers claims dept.

I'm assuming the gear never fully retracted or obviously they would never have known. Can't get to Vegas with a wheel down.

It's just a question of how much damage is going to be done. You could land it on it's belly but it's hard to say what will happen as the engines are going to want to come off and you are going to crush the hold, the great danger to life would be fire.

Guy on the radio answered the same question last night.  As Flushy says, the drag factor of the landing gear would mean the plane sucked up huge amounts of fuel compared to normal, so it'd never make it to Vegas in that circumstance.

Fascinating stuff, and looks like the pilots did a great job with the landing.

Some passenger footage:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30628003

The moment of truth when VS43 first touched down.


(http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03150/virgin-sparks_3150379k.jpg)

Unless you are landing at Cardiff airport.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B6DrzLDCQAIUtwL.jpg:large)

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B6Dq6HkCYAEBAYo.jpg:large)

A plane landed on its 'belly' a few years ago in Warsaw. IIRC it's landing gears were jammed, it circled for a while to try and resolve the issue (and probably dump fuel) but no joy, and they had to touch down without wheels. Think the plane had come from New York as well, so the pilots did remarkably well after a long flight and under extreme pressure conditions.