In the last few moments, a Virgin Atlantic Airbus A350 from Orlando has declared that it will make an emergency landing and will require assistance in Edinburgh.
Information is limited surrounding this incident, but below is what we know so far on this.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
Virgin Atlantic Flight VS226 – Orlando to Edinburgh…
Virgin Atlantic flight VS226, which is making an emergency landing, is a routine scheduled flight between Orlando and Edinburgh.
The aircraft involved in this particular incident is G-VNVR.
As per data from Planespotters.net, G-VNVR is a 0.3 year old Airbus A350-1000.
It was delivered to the airline in March 2024.
Furthermore, of the A350-1000, Virgin Atlantic has 12 of them in their fleet.
Of that 12, all of them are in active service, with an average fleet age of 3.5 years.
VS226 departed Orlando at 2244 local time last night and tracked eastbound towards Edinburgh.
Upon reaching Scottish airspace, the crew onboard stated to ATC that they needed assistance on landing.
The aircraft is still in the air at the time of publication and is expected to land in the next few minutes.
Front Nose Gear Burst After Departure in the U.S…
@FlightEmergency on X reported that the Virgin Atlantic Airbus A350 from Orlando made an emergency landing into Edinburgh due to a burst front nose gear after departure from the American airport.
At this stage, it is unclear whether the aircraft required a tow off of the runway, as this does happen in some cases.
Furthermore, this remains a developing story as more information continues to come in on this incident.
As soon as we have more updates, you will see this below the article itself.
TOUCHDOWN!
TOUCHDOWN! Virgin Atlantic flight VS226 from Orlando has appeared to have landed safely into Edinburgh following the burst front nose gear.
Come to a Stop on the Runway…
VS226 has come to a stop on the runway following this emergency landing. Assistance is believed to be enroute.
Operations Disrupted at Edinburgh…
Operations have been disrupted at Edinburgh following this emergency landing.
Multiple aircraft already holding to the south of the airport looking to land.
VS Confirms It Was Not The Front Nose Gear…
AviationSource has approached Virgin Atlantic for a comment. In their initial reply, they said that it was not the front nose gear, as reported by @FlightEmergency.
They are due to send us a statement in the next few moments.
Diversions Begin…
Whilst we await the statement from VS, here is look in the skies near Edinburgh.
Arrivals are about to become even more congested, with one easyJet flight from Keflavik diverting to Glasgow.
Aircraft On The Move…
VS226 looks to be on the move, presumably being moved by a tug – slowly exiting the runway now, allowing the restart of operations at the airport.
Runway Vacated…
VS226 has been pulled off the runway and will no doubt be pulled to a stand to allow the deplanement of passengers.
Full Statement from VS…
Virgin Atlantic have now sent AviationSource a full statement on what happened onboard VS226.
It reads:
“As a precautionary measure we have requested engineers meet our flight the VS226 travelling from Orlando to Edinburgh upon landing due to low nose gear tyre pressure. The safety of our customers and crew is always our top priority and the aircraft had landed as normal”.
VS confirmed that the nose gear didn’t blow up, but again, there could very well be truth to what @FlightEmergency on X previously reported.
End of Coverage…
This brings our coverage to an end. Thank you for following!
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