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Virgin Atlantic plane to make emergency landing at UK airport

LONDON (Reuters) - A Virgin Atlantic passenger plane will carry out a "non-standard landing" at London's Gatwick airport on Monday after a fault with its landing gear forced the U.S.-bound plane to turn around, the airline said in a statement.

"Flight VS43 ... (has) returned to London Gatwick due to a technical issue with one of the landing gears," Virgin Atlantic said in a statement. "The aircraft is preparing to implement a non-standard landing procedure at Gatwick airport".

Flight tracking site flightradar24.com listed the aircraft as a Boeing 747. Data on the site and Virgin's own website showed it had left Gatwick for Las Vegas at 1:128 a.m. before turning around shortly after passing the west coast of Britain. The plane was last shown heading back towards Gatwick.

It was not clear what time the plane would land but Gatwick airport said emergency services were on standby.

Virgin Atlantic is 51 percent owned by its founder, British billionaire Richard Branson and 49 percent owned by U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines .

(Reporting by William James and Andy Bruce; Editing by Catherine Evans)

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