Virgin Atlantic flight VS 43 to Las Vegas returns safely to London Gatwick with a main gear problem

Virgin Atlantic Airways (London) flight VS 43 from London (Gatwick) to Las Vegas today encountered a technical problem after departure with its main landing gear. After dumping fuel over the Atlantic Ocean and circling south of LGW, the Boeing 747-400 landed safely at LGW. One of the main gears was not fully locked.

Virgin Atlantic tweeted this message:

Virgin Atlantic can confirm that flight VS 43 has landed safely back at Gatwick. Our priority now is to look after our passengers and crew.

Above Twitter photo by GorseFires Collectif. Boeing 747-443 G-VROM (msn 32339) circles over Brighton with the unsafe gear.

Below Copyright Photo: Robbie Shaw/AirlinersGallery.com. A close-up of the main gear moments before it landed at London Gatwick. The right outboard main gear did not deploy fully.