V-Flyer

Wonder if any other V-Flyers have picked up on this...today's Delta 65 flight from Manchester to Atlanta got divered today to London Gatwick after its left undercarriage wheel failed to retract.

I was at MAN's AVP at the time and my mate noticed the left undercarriage on the Boeing 767-300ER failed to retract after the right undercarriage and the nosewheel retracted.

Picked up on my mate's scanner that it was told to maintain 5,000ft while the crew tried to manually retract the left undercarriage. After that attempt failed the plane ascended to 6,000ft before the pilots radioed in that it was to dump fuel and will make a decision to divert to either SNN or LGW, or return to MAN. After contacting Delta Control it radioed in that it was to head to LGW under their orders and arrived at around 1.56PM GMT

Must've been scary for the passengers to fly for 2 hours with the left undercarriage wheel fully down.

The other Delta flight that day (DL155 MAN-JFK Boeing 767-400ER) left 2 1/2 hours late and is currently en-route.

As to the pax being scared, let me tell you, I'd rather have one down than see a runway foamed and waiting again... bellyflops in the pool=fun; with a plane=not fun!

Thanks for the info!

Just out of interest - where do aircraft dump their fuelin a situation like this - I'm assuming its in the sea - but how far out do they go and how do they know that there isnt a ship underneath? - and doesnt this pose environmental issues??

Sorry - thinking out loud again - and if an aircraft from the UK dumps into the sea what happens to those flights that have to return to an airport that is miles from the nearest sea - somewhere in the middle of the US or China or somewhere like Moscow?

I need to get out more!![:w]

I would have thought that if possible pilots would dump their fuel in the sea where there are less people and animals around. I would also have thought that most of the fuel would vaporize before it touched the ground. Particularly if it is being dumped from over a mile up in the sky.

It also explains why mostly the only animals that you hear about smoking or being smoked these days are fish. With all that aviation fuel in the atmosphere these days it is just too risky for seagulls, pigeons and other flying animals.[:o)]

Dumping fuel has to be done either over sea or above 10,000ft to allow it to evaporate before reaching the ground, but normally over un/sparsely populated areas.

VS.