A Virgin Atlantic passenger plane landed safely at Gatwick following the discovery of a problem with part of the aircraft’s main landing gear.
Flight VS43 was travelling from Gatwick to Las Vegas when it had to return and the plane circled over southern England for several hours dumping fuel before landing just before 4pm.
Arriving flights were diverted to other London airports and departing flights were severely delayed while the Virgin aircraft was assessed, the BBC reports.
Nick Hughes, heads of sales at Attraction World, was onboard and praised the crew for their efforts during the drama.
He described the emergency landing as “one of the softest landings I’ve ever had”.