Investigation Points To Maintenance As Cause Of One Gear Incident

Officials with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) will meet Wednesday with their counterparts from Transport Canada, to discuss a recent spate of incidents involving Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 regional turboprops flying for Scandinavian Airlines (SAS).

EASA called for the emergency meeting last week, reports the International Herald Tribune, following the announcement by SAS it would stop flying all its Q400s. As ANN reported, three SAS Q400s suffered nearly-identical failures of their right main landing gear assemblies in less than two months, resulting in emergency landings.

Separate investigations by the Danish government determined the first two incidents -- in Aalborg, Denmark on September 9, followed by another failure in Vilnius, Lithuania three days later -- were caused by a corroded bolt in each plane's landing gear assembly. However, a third incident on October 27 may have been caused by a loose rubber O-ring, which jammed and kept the gear leg from extending.

Furthermore, according to the preliminary report by the Danish Accident Investigation Board, a portion of the right maingear was replaced six days before that accident -- using parts intended for the nose gear. The parts were "reconfigured by maintenance personnel" for use by SAS on the maingear, according to the report.

If those findings hold up in the final report, it would give credibility to those who have said the problem lies not with the aircraft, but with SAS maintenance... a position held by the plane's manufacturer, Bombardier.

In a statement this week, Bombardier said the Danish report "clearly supports" its position, that "the Q400 is a safe and reliable aircraft." A SAS spokeswoman declined to comment on the preliminary report's findings, saying only the airline "doing everything to help" authorities determine the cause of the problem.

Authorities in Denmark, Sweden and Norway supported the decision by SAS to permanently ground its 27-plane Q400 fleet... a position contrary to EASA's, which had upheld the aircraft's airworthiness certification.

Resolving that "non-harmonized situation," in the words of an EASA spokeswoman, is one of the goals of Wednesday's meeting.

FMI: www.bombardier.com, www.flysas.com, www.easa.eu.int