A Virgin Atlantic Airbus A340-300 (G-VSKY) with 114 passengers and crew on board makes a gear-inspection fly-past at London Heathrow Airport in the UK on 5 November, before landing safely with the left main gear still locked up. No-one was hurt in the landing, which closed one of Heathrow's two runways for almost 24h. Engineering sources confirm that the problem was mechanical, caused by a loose brake-rod which fouled the mechanism. The following day, an Air France Boeing 737-500 landing at Berlin Tegel Airport skidded off the runway because of a possible brake defect. There were no injuries.
Source: Flight International
