[SimonS1]

Indeed BigDog. Excellent airmanship by the crew and the most important thing is everyone is OK.

[LuganoPirate]

There’s an excellent report and video clip of the landing on avherald.com where you can clearly see the landing and a nice little bounce. Hard to tell, but the roll out after landing seems quite short?

[LuganoPirate]

And here’s a link to an excellent photo of the stuck landing gear.

http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=172554

I just wonder why it took so long to clear the runway?

[canucklad]

HI LP & BigDog,
I’m in no way an expert so after watching the video of the landing, I’ll slightly question Aviation Heralds account of stopping with “Wings Level”.
The right wing is definitely lower than the left, so this was possibly a factor in accessing options before they towed the aircraft away, to make sure the towing didn’t stress the aircraft resulting in damage actually being done to the runway.

[ImissConcorde]

Bearing in mind his love of the media is anyone else of the opinion that SRBs response to this incident, a tweet, is rather inadequate?

[SimonS1]

Not really – Virgin Atlantic has a Chief Executive who was at Gatwick dealing with things hands on.

Unlike the CEO of Network Rail who stayed bunkered at his holiday home when it all went pear shaped.

[AnthonyDunn]

BigDog

My thoughts entirely. Can anyone offer any explanation why LGW could not have foamed one runway for the VS B744 and then had the other runway ready for use once the plane had safely landed and fire-tenders had secured the situation?

Having watched the landing, this was a fine piece of flying by the cockpit crew who thoroughly deserve any plaudits they receive.

[SimonS1]

The guys on PPRuNe seem to be suggesting it was because with the number of emergency resources involved in dealing with the landing, evacuation etc there was insufficient cover for the airport to operate.

[LuganoPirate]

I’m wondering if EU261 applies in these circumstances?

[MrMichael]

I think EU261 will apply if you were due on any Virgin flight. Virgin is responsible for maintenance and operation of their own aircraft. For others I think probably not…as it was due to Virgin/LGW that the runway was shut.

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