Says Manufacture, Not Maintenance, To Blame

A preliminary report on last Sunday's accident involving a Scandinavian Airlines Bombardier Q400 says a "constructional weakness" led to the collapse of the aircraft's right maingear on landing at Aalborg, and not a maintenance error.

The report, by the Danish civil aviation authority (SLV), states the maingear leg collapsed after a nut worked loose, due to rust on the bolt threads, according to Ritzau's Bureau.

Of course, that does not necessarily point to a design flaw on the Q400... but SLV spokesman Thorbjoern Ancker said the agency believes the fault lies there, and not with discrepancies with maintenance practices at SAS.

"All speculation that this was an error by SAS is now shown to be wrong," Ancker was cited saying, according to Thompson Financial. "It's a constructional weakness."

As ANN reported, officials at Transport Canada called for immediate visual inspections Thursday of all Bombardier Q400 turboprops following two landing gear failures worldwide over the course of three days. Two days after the Aalborg accident, another SAS Q400 suffered an identical gear failure in Lithuania. The accidents caused both planes to depart the runway.

Investigators with SLV, as well as the Norwegian and Swedish civil aviation authorities, were to meet Friday to decide whether to keep the airline's Q400s grounded or let them resume normal operations.

Meanwhile, at least one airline has determined its Q400s are safe to fly. Australia's Qantas returned its six-plane Q400 fleet to service Thursday, after checks revealed no apparent anomalies with the landing gear assemblies on those planes.

While the Q400 has a reputation with some carriers of being a somewhat temperamental airliner when it comes to maintenance, the two SAS landing incidents are the only two known gear failures involving the aircraft, a derivative of the storied Dash-8.

Bombardier spokesman Marc Duchesne would not comment to Ritzau's Bureau on SLV's preliminary report, nor would he speculate if SAS would receive any compensation from the company should the investigators' final report state the accident was due to manufacturer error.

"That will be part of the discussions between Bombardier and the maker of the landing gear and between Bombardier and airlines," he said.

FMI: www.q400.com, www.flysas.com, www.slv.dk