Virgin Plane Drama Pilot 'Just Doing Job'

The pilot who successfully landed a Virgin Atlantic jet at Gatwick Airport after a major landing gear fault has said he was just doing his job.

In a statement issued as his relieved passengers from the flight landed safely in Las Vegas, David Williams praised colleagues and said any of the airline's pilots would have done the same thing.

He said: "Clearly this was an out of the ordinary landing, but I was just doing my job and any one of our pilots would have taken the same actions.

"I'm really proud of my colleagues on the ground and in the air and the support they gave me during this event - everyone worked really hard in a difficult situation and we are delighted that our customers were able to travel to Las Vegas the next day for their New Year's Eve celebrations."

Virgin Atlantic said Mr Williams had been keen to stay out of the media spotlight over the last 24 hours, and the pilot added he was "keen to spend some private time with my family over the new year".

A specially scheduled flight meant most of the 447 passengers continued their journey on Tuesday after Monday's flight suffered a major landing gear fault which forced it to return to Gatwick.

Virgin Atlantic confirmed the flight took off at 11:15 on Tuesday, and landed safely at McCarran International Airport Las Vegas at 20:59 GMT.

A spokeswoman for the airline said: "The majority of people did choose to fly - about 95% did.

"Some didn't for various reasons, but I think the majority did choose to fly.

"About 13 of the passengers went on holiday as crew companions and obviously that original crew weren't travelling any more."

The spokeswoman said it is standard procedure for a new crew to operate a flight if there is an incident or delay on board.

Passengers applauded with relief after their stricken Virgin Atlantic jumbo jet landed safely at the West Sussex airport on Monday, and praised the pilot.

Travellers, who had been told to adopt the brace position, spoke of a "textbook landing" and praised the calmness of the crew who landed the plane safely despite one of its five sets of landing gear not deploying.

Sir Richard Branson added his thanks, writing on Twitter: "Well done Virgin Atlantic pilots & team for safe & skillful landing of VS43.

"Thoughts with passengers & crew, thanks for support & patience."