India, July 15 -- Nine passenger aircraft circling above London simultaneously declared emergencies in the early hours of Wednesday morning after a British Airways Airbus A320 suffered an apparent landing gear failure on the single operational runway at Gatwick Airport, blocking all arrivals and leaving dozens of inbound flights from across Europe with nowhere to land as their fuel reserves steadily drained.

The cascading crisis unfolded after British Airways flight BA2673, arriving from Palma de Mallorca in Spain, touched down at Gatwick at approximately 12:50 a.m. but was left stranded on the runway when emergency services rushed to respond to the stricken aircraft.

Reports from passengers on diverted flights, including one whose husb...