After two SAS, 14,000+ cycle Bombardier Q400s experienced main landing gear collapses, SAS, Wideroe and Flybe grounded their fleets pending inspections, followed by Horizon. SAS has 27 aircraft. Bombardier reported that corrosion was found on the SAS gear on the actuator that extends and retracts the gear. Embraer has also been experiencing gear problems after gear collapses recently. Related Story
Porter Airlines announced it was unaffected by the problem since its aircraft have not exceeded 2,000 cycles and operate with the newest generation landing gear assembly. Porter has completed precautionary inspections on all of its aircraft and found no issues, however. Flybe grounded six of its 74 aircraft, cancelling 12 flights and delaying five others. It expected to return to normal operations by Friday.
Bombardier and Goodrich, the landing gear manufacturer, recommended in an All Operator Message (AOM) that operators of Q400 aircraft having accumulated more than 10,000 landing gear cycles, be grounded until an inspection of the landing gear is carried out after which Transport Canada issued an emergency airworthiness directive (AD). The grounding recommendation covers Q400s also flown by Japan Airlines Corp., Austrian Airlines Group and Germany's Augsburg Airways. All Nippon experienced three landing gear failures this year including one in which the front gear failed to extend.
Horizon, which has operated the Canadian-manufactured Q400 since 2001 and now has 33 in its fleet, has never experienced any issues like those SAS recently encountered. Of its daily average of 500 flights, Horizon canceled 154 flights on Thursday and 121 for Friday. Some cancellations are also expected over the weekend. At press time on Friday, Horizon said nearly half of the Q400s in its fleet – 16 of 33 aircraft – will have been inspected, as per Transport Canada and Bombardier specifications, and returned to service.
Colgan and Frontier are set to begin using the aircraft in January and later this year, respectively. Bombardier has delivered more than 160 Q400 aircraft to airlines around the world, of these, there are currently about 60 Q400 aircraft with more than 10,000 landing gear cycles.
The first accident occurred September 9 in Aalborg, Denmark and the second in Vilnius, Lithuania where the aircraft was diverted after experiencing technical difficulties en-route from Copenhagen to Palanga (Lithuania). On Sept. 9, a Scandinavian Airlines Q400 caught fire in Aalborg, Denmark, after its landing gear failed to work. In the Sept. 9 accident, five of 69 passengers were injured. No injuries occurred in the second accident.