Third SAS Q400 Suffers Landing Gear Collapse

By The Associated Press

posted: 27 October 2007 01:55 pm ET

: On Oct. 27, a Bombardier Q400 of SAS Commuter carrying 40 passengers and four crew from Bergen in Norway to Copenhagen made an emergency landing at Copenhagen, whereupon its right main landing gear collapsed. The pilots had reported a landing gear malfunction while the aircraft was still en route. Although nobody was seriously hurt, it was the third such incident for the airline in the space of a little more than a month and came soon after the airline had returned its 27-aircraft Q400 fleet to service after grounding it for landing-gear inspections following the previous two incidents. Credit: Bombardier Aerospace

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- A plane carrying 46 people made an emergency landing at Copenhagen Airport in Denmark on Saturday, sliding onto its right wing after the landing gear collapsed, a police official said.

No one was seriously injured in the accident, Copenhagen police spokesman Tommy Keil said.

The SAS-owned Q400 turboprop, carrying 40 passengers -- including two infants -- and four crew members, was en route to Copenhagen from Bergen, Norway, when authorities received a distress call.

Prior to the accident, the pilots of the aircraft reported problems with its main landing gear, according to SAS.

The accident took place at 16:55 local time and the runway on which the aircraft landed -- one of two at Copenhagen's Kastrup Airport -- was closed after it happened. The Q400 involved bore the registration number LN-RDI and was operating SAS flight number SK 2867 from Bergen to Copenhagen, the airline said.

Keil said it was still unclear what had caused the emergency landing. "All we know right now is that the landing gear broke down and the plane fell onto its right wing when it was landing."

SAS spokesman Jens Langergaard said he did not have further details about the crash.

Copenhagen Airport said it had closed off one of its two runways because of the accident, resulting in flight delays.

It was the third accident that has involved SAS's Bombardier-made turboprops in recent months. All the accidents involved collapses of the main landing gear legs.

On Sept. 9, one of its Q400 aircraft caught fire after making an emergency landing at Aalborg's airport in Denmark.

Three days later, another aircraft of the same type skidded off a runway at Vilnius airport in Lithuania and smashed one wing into the ground, also during an emergency landing.

No one was seriously injured in the accidents, but both planes had landing gear problems and led to SAS grounding its entire fleet of 27 Bombardier-manufactured turboprops for three weeks for inspections and repairs. Flights with the aircraft were resumed in early October.

Other airlines also werer required to ground their Q400s for landing-gear inspections at the time of the second SAS incident. The included Seattle-based Horizon Air, the second-largest operator of the Q400 after the UK's Flybe. Horizon Air had to cut its schedule by more than 25 percent for several days because of the gorunding.

SAS Group said following today's incident that it would ground all its Dash 8-400 aircraft again until further notice. The SAS Group Q400 fleet includes four aircraft operated by Norwegian subsidiary Wideroe Flyveselskap, in addition to 23 in the SAS Commuter fleet.

Scandinavian Airlines, or SAS, is the joint flag carrier of Sweden, Denmark and Norway.

Aviation.com Senior Editor Chris Kjelgaard contributed additional reporting to this article.