Latest Incident Persuades SAS to Stop Operating Q400s

posted: 29 October 2007 02:57 pm ET

: A third main-landing-gear collapse involving a Bombardier Q400 within two months has persuaded SAS Group to stop operating its fleet of 27 Q400s permanently. Bombardier says the latest SAS incident isn't related to the two previous incidents and that there is no endemic problem with the Q400's landing gear. Horizon Air, a long-term Q400 operator with an even larger fleet of the type, says it hasn't had the same problems. Credit: Bombardier Aerospace

A third landing-gear-collapse involving a Bombardier Q400 in less than two months has persuaded Scandinavian Airlines to stop operating the turboprop airliner type permanently.

SAS' board of directors convened an unscheduled meeting yesterday to decide what to do about the future of SAS Group's 27-strong Q400 fleet following Saturday's incident at Copenhagen's Kastrup Airport, which forced the closure of one of the airport's two runways for several hours.

Nobody among the 40 passengers and four crew members on board was seriously hurt when the Q400's right main landing gear collapsed upon landing. The aircraft's pilots had radioed ahead while the aircraft was en route from Bergen to Copenhagen, operating SAS flight SK2867, that it was showing a landing-gear malfunction warning.

Saturday's incident followed two incidents in September in which the right main landing-gear legs of SAS Q400s collapsed. The first incident took place at Aalborg in Denmark on Sept. 9 and the second at the second at Vilnius, Lithuania two days later.

In yesterday's meeting, the SAS board decided that in light of the three incidents the airline would stop using the 70-seat Bombardier Q400 immediately.

"Confidence in the Q400 has diminished considerably and our customers are becoming increasingly doubtful about flying in this type of aircraft. Accordingly, with the Board of Directors' approval, I have decided to immediately remove Dash 8 Q400 aircraft from service," said Mats Jansson, SAS' president and CEO.

SAS was the first customer to fly the Q400 commercially, launching operations with the type in January 2000. The Q400 accounted for approximately 5 percent of SAS Group's passenger boardings. SAS Group's aim is to replace its Q400 by reallocating other aircraft already in the fleet and by leasing additional aircraft.

SAS says Q400 caused quality problems

"The Dash 8 Q400 has given rise to repeated quality-related problems and we can now conclude that the aircraft does not match our passengers' requirements concerning punctuality and regularity," said John Dueholm, SAS' deputy CEO.

"SAS's flight operations have always enjoyed an excellent reputation and there is a risk that use of the Dash 8 Q400 could eventually damage the SAS brand," Dueholm added.

The decision to retire its Q400s means SAS will have to cancel numbers of flights in the short term, the airline said. It will give customers booked on those flights the opportunity either to rebook or have their tickets refunded.

SAS hasn't said yet how it plans to dispose of its Q400s, 23 of which are operated by its SAS Commuter division and four by Wideroe Flyveselskap, an SAS Group regional airline subsidiary based in Norway. SAS Group leases 26 of the 27 Q400s, owning the other one, according to an article today in the Toronto newspaper The Globe and Mail on the SAS decision.

Bombardier said in a statement that it was "disappointed" with SAS' decision to retire its Q400 fleet, "given that the landing incident is still under investigation by Danish authorities."

"No relationship" with earlier incidents, says Bombardier

"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," the company said. "There appears to be no relationship between this incident and previous SAS Q400 main landing gear incidents."

Inspections of the two SAS Q400s involved in the earlier incidents revealed that corroded pistons had contributed to the landing-gear malfunctions, SAS spokesman Hans Ollongren told The Globe and Mail.

"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," said Bombardier.

After the second SAS incident on Sept. 11, Bombardier and Transport Canada, the airworthiness authority in the manufacturer's country of domicile, asked operators to ground all Q400s that had operated more than 8,000 flights or more than four years for immediate main-landing-gear inspections.

More than half of the 165 Q400s then flying were grounded for the inspections, including 19 of the 33 Q400s that Seattle-based Horizon Air operates. Horizon Air was forced to cut its schedule by more than 25 percent to perform the inspections, which it completed within five days, after which it returned all the aircraft to service.

Horizon Air continues full schedule

Horizon Air spokesman Dan Russo said the U.S. airline would continue its full Q400 flight schedule unless it is advised by Bombardier to do otherwise.

"We are in close contact with Bombardier," said Russo. "We have confidence in the manufacturer and the regulatory authorities to oversee this."

Horizon Air has been operating the Q400 since 2001, and "we have never experienced any issues such as these" incidents affecting the three SAS Q400s, added Russo.

However, while Horizon Air's Q400 operation does resemble the SAS Q400 route network to the extent that both airlines have regularly flown the aircraft in winter to destinations that are very cold and see snow, SAS probably has performed far more flights over sea water. Many, if not most, of the flights operated by its Q400s routed over the Baltic Sea and parts of the Atlantic Ocean. Long periods flying over seawater, particularly at lower altitudes, are known to promulgate corrosion in commercial aircraft.

SAS spokesman Ollongren told The Globe and Mail that the airline's decision to retire its Q400s shouldn’t be taken as a statement about the quality standards of Bombardier in general.

"Bombardier has a number of excellent aircraft in their product line, but we do have a serious problem with the Q400" following the three landing-gear-collapse incidents within a short period of time, said Ollongren. "Our customers do not wish to fly the Q400."

The airline's decision came less than a week after Bombardier won orders for at least 22 and potentially as many as 56 more Q400s, from two airlines.

Existing Q400 operator Qantas ordered 12 additional aircraft and optioned 24 more. Then an unnamed European airline -- which will be a new operator of the Q400, according to Bombardier -- ordered 10 and optioned 10 Q400s. The firm orders increased the total Q400 orderbook to 264 aircraft.