Bound for Las Vegas this morning the VS043 suffered a technical issue with one of its landing gears and had to turn back, and circled over Horsham, Mid Sussex, Newhaven and Peacehaven before making a safe landing at Gatwick shortly before 4pm this afternoon.
Emergency services were put on standby but according to a spokesperson for South East Coast Ambulance Service no passengers or crew require any medical attention at present. Henry Smith, MP for Crawley, tweeted: “My thanks to @Gatwick_Airport based emergency services and professionalism of @VirginAtlantic crew following safe landing of #VS43 just now.”
Former Great British Bake Off contestant Cathryn Dresser tweeted: “Oh my gosh so relieved to read flight #VS43 landed safely.”
Charlotte Jones, from Haywards Heath, tweeted: “Very pleased to hear #VS43 has landed safely, huge well done to crew.”
Laura Foreman wrote on the West Sussex County Times Facebook page: “It was also circling over Roffey about 1.35pm, my partner and I saw it and thought how low it was!
“It was quite scary as it was very low and looked like it was in trouble.”
Liam Marshall Ascough, a Crawley borough councillor, added on Twitter: “Pilots & crew did a fantastic job! Incredibly proud of my colleagues! #vs43.”
Twitter users in Crowborough, Newhaven and Seaford also posted messages and photos of the flight passing overhead this afternoon.