Virgin Atlantic 747 emergency landing

chillidoggy

CabbageCat said:

I saw the plane flying over Mid Sussex as I was driving to Tesco in Burgess Hill. I thought at the time that it was flying very low and behaving weirdly. It wasn't until I got back to work that I saw it was national news - I'd have paid more attention.

Good job you didn't, you'd have probably crashed into the car in front.

HAL9000

ICBM;30474" said:

..
surely it would have been better to just fly to Las Vegas as planned and make the landing there...

Surely you weren't expecting a Virgin to go all the way?

Emp_Fab

CabbageCat said:

I saw the plane flying over Mid Sussex as I was driving to Tesco in Burgess Hill. I thought at the time that it was flying very low and behaving weirdly. It wasn't until I got back to work that I saw it was national news - I'd have paid more attention.

How can a 747 'behave weirdly' ?  What was it doing ?

Fortheloveofguitar

Only 95% of the passengers travelled again the next day. Prob scared a few I'm sure.

CabbageCat

Emp_Fab said:

CabbageCat said:

I saw the plane flying over Mid Sussex as I was driving to Tesco in Burgess Hill. I thought at the time that it was flying very low and behaving weirdly. It wasn't until I got back to work that I saw it was national news - I'd have paid more attention.

How can a 747 'behave weirdly' ?  What was it doing ?

It was banking sharply at low altitude when there wasn't an airport all that nearby. I couldn't tell whether it was trying to climb or descend.

Emp_Fab

Ah.  Probably in a hold then.  You must live somewhere near one of the many holds it had....

I'm guessing you don't live on Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel.

CabbageCat

Yeah. Burgess Hill is about half way between Gatwick and Brighton.