Virgin VS43 in trouble?

[david3103]

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.

[Royal Flush]

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.

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

[Royal Flush]

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.

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?

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.

[Sheriff Fatman]

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.

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

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.

[Tal]

Some passenger footage:

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

[tikay]

The moment of truth when VS43 first touched down.

Click to see full-size image.

[DungBeetle]

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.

Unless you are landing at Cardiff airport.

[TightEnd]

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

[hhyftrftdr]

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.

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?

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.