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This Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747-400 landed safely in Sussex after a landing gear malfunction.  Flight VS43 out of London Gatwick on December 29 was headed for Las Vegas and landed in Sussex after a minor mechanical issue with the hydraulic system made a return necessary.
The plane spent a few hours circling to burn and dump enough fuel to meet the aircraft’s maximum landing weight requirement. The 747 landed with only four of it’s available five sets of landing gears deployed. Credit goes to the talented pilots who made a textbook soft landing in this incident.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoWS_SHe4gU
The Virgin Atlantic is 13 years old.
Check out more videos of emergency landings.

Alicja Gados

I was born in Europe (Poland) and moved to Calgary as a young kid and grew up in Canada. I began graduate school in Edmonton, Alberta where I also began ground school and my private pilot’s license training at Edmonton city centre, the now closed, Blatchford field, CYXD (most operators have moved a short way west to Villeneuve). I moved to the rocky mountains, I transferred flight schools to very busy, and windy Springbank airport – CYBW near Calgary. This move was overwhelming, at best. This is a blog about my experience learning to fly, acquiring more flight experience and ratings but also about general aviation topics, news and gear reviews. I’ve discovered that flying takes a lot of studying, work and dedication, but is very rewarding! I started flying just out of graduate school, so I have struggled with paying for my lessons, and as a result, I have to take many breaks, which means that getting licensed has taken many more hours than normal. I am a commercial and multi IFR rated licensed pilot. I completed my PPL and CPL in Calgary-Springbank and multi IFR (group one) ratings in Abbotsford, BC at Chinook Helicopters. If you are learning to fly, interested in learning to fly or just interested in aviation, please join us. I trained as an economist before becoming a pilot and switching to aviation full time. I enjoy climbing, mountaineering, hiking, camping and backcountry skiing. It’s a great time to be in aviation. The industry is growing.

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