Bombardier Q400's future looks shaky

EUROPEAN safety officials have called a crisis meeting to discuss the fate of Bombardier Q400 airliners, despite findings that the problem behind a crash-landing in Copenhagen on Saturday is not linked to a flaw responsible for two previous crashes.

The European Aviation Safety Agency warned it will “take all measures to ensure the safety of European passengers and citizens” after the Copenhagen incident and would decide whether to issue a further airworthiness directive after the meeting with Canadian authorities and manufacturer Bombardier.

Bombardier has defended the plane and has advised its other customers, including Qantas, to continue flying.

Saturday’s landing gear failure proved the last straw for Scandinavian Airline Systems, which announced it was abandoning its fleet of 27 Q400s due to “repeated quality-related problems” and because customers no longer trusted the aircraft.

The airline group said its flight operations had always enjoyed an excellent reputation and there was a risk that use of the Q400 could eventually damage the SAS brand.

SAS operates the aircraft on domestic routes in Scandinavia, as well as on European routes, and it accounts for about 5 per cent of the group’s seat capacity.

Denmark’s Civil Aviation Accident Investigation Board said this week that the latest Q400 crash occurred after the right landing gear failed to extend.

The two previous Q400 crashes, in Denmark and Lithuania in September, were found to have been caused by the corrosion of a bolt that prevented the right landing gear from locking.

But the latest incident appears to be linked to what investigators have termed “a blocked orifice” in the landing gear hydraulics.

Canadian manufacturer Bombardier, which expressed disappointment at SAS’s decision, said the preliminary findings backed up its belief there were no connections between the incidents.

SAS said this week it would do everything possible to mitigate the negative consequences of its decisions for passengers, including leasing aircraft to replace the Q400s in the short term.

SAS expects the decision to cost it 300-400 million Swedish kroner ($51-68 million).

“In parallel, work has already been initiated (on) how to replace the aircraft type long term,” the airline’s board said. “SAS expects to start to implement a long-term solution by the second half of 2008.”

Unlike SAS, Qantas has said it will stick with its fleet of seven Q400s and forge ahead with a recently announced $400 million order for 12 more, with options and purchase rights on an additional 24.

The September accidents prompted Bombardier and regulatory authorities to issue a global alert calling for immediate inspections of all Q400s.

QantasLink inspections of its seven aircraft led to the discovery of loose nuts on the undercarriage of some planes.

The airline said earlier this week that it was closely monitoring the situation and its aircraft had been cleared to fly after the September inspections. It also noted that its aircraft were younger than those at SAS and had all been operated for less than 5000 cycles, compared with more than 14,000 cycles on the overseas planes.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority is also watching developments and is receiving regular updates from Danish and Canadian authorities.

CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said the authority saw no reason to take action on the aircraft at this stage. Mr Gibson said CASA had also been told the latest incident was not related to the previous two. “We’re keeping in close contact with Transport Canada and the Danish authorities and we’re getting quite detailed engineering advice from them as they’re progressing their examination,” he said.

“But really the only thing we know at this point is that it’s not related to the previous two and that it is another issue. But whether it’s a local issue or something that could apply to all models, we still haven’t worked out the answer to that yet.”

Source: The Australian