Watch troubled U.S.-bound Virgin Atlantic flight make emergency landing

A Virgin Atlantic 747 flying from London's Gatwick airport to Las Vegas had to turn around a few hours after takeoff after what Virgin described as "a technical issue with one of the landing gears." This is what that looked like from the ground, as flight VS43 circled low over southwest England:

The plane landed safely back at Gatwick, which closed all its runways to accommodate the emergency landing, delaying flights and diverting landing aircraft to other airports in the area. Speaking to the BBC, passenger Mike Kaufman praised the crew and pilots: "This was one of the greatest emergency landings in history. It was very smooth." You can watch the "non-standard landing procedure" below. --Peter Weber

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