A weekend board meeting at Scandinavian airline SAS, following yet another landing gear accident with a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400, has resulted in a decision to cease using this type of aircraft.

Three accidents have thus far occurred, the latest on Saturday. As ANN reported, Flight SK 2867 executed a partial gear-up landing at the Copenhagen airport. The aircraft undertook an emergency landing at 1655 local time, with crash-rescue trucks called out in advance of the touchdown by a flight crew that alerted the tower to their situation. The runway was foamed for the partial-gear touchdown and no serious injuries were reported.

The incident occurred barely six weeks after two similar accidents prompted a temporary grounding of the aircraft. SAS grounded its full fleet of 27 Dash 8 Q400 turboprops on Sept. 12 after landing gear failed to fully deploy twice in just four days, causing damage to each airframe. The fleet was phased back into service starting on Oct. 4th.

"Confidence in the Q400 has diminished considerably and our customers are becoming increasingly doubtful about flying in this type of aircraft," said Chief Executive Mats Jansson, following the decision to quit the aircraft series. Deputy Chief Executive John Dueholm added that "repeated quality-related problems" contributed to feelings that continued use of the Dash 8 Q400 could damage the SAS brand.

According to statements by SAS, "The aim is to replace traffic based on the Q400 by reallocating current aircraft in the SAS group's fleet and by means of leasing." SAS spokesperson Olof Rundgren reported that SAS had to cancel 52 flights Sunday and another 13 on Monday, even more than had been reported earlier on.

Bombardier Statement Regarding The SAS Decision To Abandon Q400 Aircraft Use

Bombardier is disappointed with the SAS decision to permanently discontinue flight operations with the Bombardier Q400 aircraft given that the landing incident is still under investigation by Danish authorities.

While SAS chose to ground its Q400 turboprop fleet following the incident on October 27, 2007, Bombardier’s assessment of this situation, in consultation with Transport Canada, did not identify a systemic landing gear issue. Based on this we advised all Q400 aircraft operators that they should continue with normal Q400 aircraft flight operations. Further, Bombardier and the landing gear manufacturer, Goodrich, have completed a full review of the Q400 turboprop landing gear system and results have confirmed its safe design and operational integrity.

Bombardier stands behind the Q400 aircraft. Since entering revenue service in February 2000, the Q400 turboprop has proven itself to be a safe and reliable aircraft with over 150 Q400 aircraft in operation among 22 operators around the world. To date, the fleet of Q400 aircraft has logged over one million flying hours and 1.2 million take-off and landing cycles.

FMI: www.flysas.com,  www.bombardier.com