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Virgin Atlantic Flight 024
Virgin Atlantic Flight 024 was a regularly scheduled Virgin Atlantic passenger flight from Los Angeles, California, to London, United Kingdom. On 5 November 1997, the Airbus A340 was forced to make an emergency landing at London Heathrow Airport after the left main landing gear failed to deploy. During the crash landing, the aircraft was damaged and later repaired. Of the 114 passengers and crew aboard, 7 were lightly injured.
The aircraft involved was an Airbus A340-311, registered G-VSKY with manufacturer serial number 016. It made its first flight on 3 November 1993 and was delivered soon after to Virgin Atlantic on 21 January 1994. At the time of the accident, the aircraft had flown 19,323 hours. It was fitted with four CFM International CFM56-5C2 high-bypass turbofan engines.
At 05:09 GMT (21:09 local time), flight VS024 departed from runway 24L in Los Angeles following a 19-minute delay. While climbing, the crew noticed that the landing gear was slow to retract. Later, during a routine in-flight systems scan, it was noted that the no. 6 brake temperature sensor on the inboard rear wheel of the main landing gear had failed, but the flight was otherwise uneventful.
At 15:04 GMT, while on final approach to Runway 27L at London Heathrow, the crew received an aural "Gear unsafe" alert after deploying the landing gear, After which, the first officer, who was the pilot flying, elected to go around at 2.5 nm from the runway threshold and return to a holding pattern to attempt to resolve the problem.
The crew decided to fly near the ATC tower to have a controller visually identify any problem. It was found that after attempting to gravity drop the left main landing gear, that it was stuck in a partially deployed position. The crew tried to complete several manoeuvres to free the landing gear without success. The crew had planned to touch the runway with the right main landing gear and immediately go around, hoping to shake the landing gear into a locked position but this was not attempted.
When the crew realized that it was impossible to deploy the left main landing gear, the passengers and airport were prepared for an emergency landing. At 16:08 with the aircraft nearly out of fuel, a "Mayday" was declared. The crew chose to land the plane on runway 27L, believing the lopsided aircraft would turn away from airport facilities once on the ground and towards empty space.
As the aircraft touched down, engine 4 struck the runway and the right main landing gear tyres burst. Soon after, engines 1 and 2 also struck the ground, bursting into flames. Once the aircraft veered to the left and stopped passengers were evacuated, seven of which suffered minor injuries.
The accident was caused by the following factors:
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Virgin Atlantic Flight 024
Virgin Atlantic Flight 024 was a regularly scheduled Virgin Atlantic passenger flight from Los Angeles, California, to London, United Kingdom. On 5 November 1997, the Airbus A340 was forced to make an emergency landing at London Heathrow Airport after the left main landing gear failed to deploy. During the crash landing, the aircraft was damaged and later repaired. Of the 114 passengers and crew aboard, 7 were lightly injured.
The aircraft involved was an Airbus A340-311, registered G-VSKY with manufacturer serial number 016. It made its first flight on 3 November 1993 and was delivered soon after to Virgin Atlantic on 21 January 1994. At the time of the accident, the aircraft had flown 19,323 hours. It was fitted with four CFM International CFM56-5C2 high-bypass turbofan engines.
At 05:09 GMT (21:09 local time), flight VS024 departed from runway 24L in Los Angeles following a 19-minute delay. While climbing, the crew noticed that the landing gear was slow to retract. Later, during a routine in-flight systems scan, it was noted that the no. 6 brake temperature sensor on the inboard rear wheel of the main landing gear had failed, but the flight was otherwise uneventful.
At 15:04 GMT, while on final approach to Runway 27L at London Heathrow, the crew received an aural "Gear unsafe" alert after deploying the landing gear, After which, the first officer, who was the pilot flying, elected to go around at 2.5 nm from the runway threshold and return to a holding pattern to attempt to resolve the problem.
The crew decided to fly near the ATC tower to have a controller visually identify any problem. It was found that after attempting to gravity drop the left main landing gear, that it was stuck in a partially deployed position. The crew tried to complete several manoeuvres to free the landing gear without success. The crew had planned to touch the runway with the right main landing gear and immediately go around, hoping to shake the landing gear into a locked position but this was not attempted.
When the crew realized that it was impossible to deploy the left main landing gear, the passengers and airport were prepared for an emergency landing. At 16:08 with the aircraft nearly out of fuel, a "Mayday" was declared. The crew chose to land the plane on runway 27L, believing the lopsided aircraft would turn away from airport facilities once on the ground and towards empty space.
As the aircraft touched down, engine 4 struck the runway and the right main landing gear tyres burst. Soon after, engines 1 and 2 also struck the ground, bursting into flames. Once the aircraft veered to the left and stopped passengers were evacuated, seven of which suffered minor injuries.
The accident was caused by the following factors: