SAS Q400 Landing Gear Collapse

sarius SG

A SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) Dash 8-400 (Q400) with flight number SK1209 from Copenhagen to Aalborg was involved in an accident at Aalborg Airport on Sunday, Sept. 9.

Pilots identified a problem with the main landing gear and they prepared for an emergency landing. After landing, according to SAS, the right main gear collapsed.

There where 69 passengers and 4 crew onboard and 5 passengers have been lightly injured during evacuation.

Link

Video

Meia Gisborn SG

Viewed the video of the touchdown and subsequent gear collapse. Pretty impressive! Apparently, when the starboard prop contacted the ground and fragmented, pieces of it penetrated the fuselage, but fortunately none of the passengers were struck by them.

sarius SG

SAS Grounds Dash 8-400 Fleet After Second Accident This Week

Bombardier has recommended immediate inspections of all Bombardier Q400s with more than 10,000 landing-gear cycles after SAS suffered a second accident on landing within three days.

The extent of the work required was not immediately clear, but at least 60 aircraft are expected to be affected. SAS describes the aircraft as being "grounded" pending the individual inspections.

The aircraft had been operating flight SK2748 from Copenhagen to Palanga in Lithuania when the accident occurred at 01:36 today, 12 September.

SAS says: "The aircraft experienced technical difficulties and the crew decided to divert to Vilnius Airport in Lithuania where the accident occurred at 01:36 local time today.

"Although no further details of the accident are available at the moment we can confirm that there are 48 passengers and four crew onboard. All passengers were evacuated after landing and no injuries are reported."

SAS had already began inspecting its Q400 fleet operated by its Scandinavian Airlines and Wideroe units - following the main-gear collapse on one of the type during touchdown at Aalborg on 9 September.

It says: "The Canadian manufacturer of the Q400, Bombardier, is in the process of developing an inspection programme. As a precautionary measure, Bombardier is highly recommending that all aircraft worldwide of this type with 10,000 landing gear cycles or more will be grounded until the recommended inspection is carried out.

"Scandinavian Airlines and Wideroe have already decided to ground the entire fleet of Q400s aircraft until further notice. No aircraft will be released for operations until these inspections have been carried out on all aircraft."

Flights ACAS database lists 61 aircraft with more than 10,000 airframe cycles. SAS itself, with 20, and Alaska Airs Seattle-based Horizon Air subsidiary with 17 are the worst affected carriers.

Augsburg Airways of Germany and Austrian Airlines regional unit Austrian Arrows each have six aircraft affected, and there are smaller numbers at Air Nippon Network and Japan Air Commuter in Japan, Flybe of the UK, and Royal Jordanian Xpress in Jordan.

sarius SG

SAS confirms gear collapsed in Vilnius Q400 accident

SAS has confirmed that this mornings Vilnius Bombardier Q400 accident bore a strong resemblance to its 9 September Aalborg crash, with both aircraft suffering a right landing gear collapse.

This morning a Scandinavian Airlines Q400, which was operating between Copenhagen to Palanga in Lithuania, diverted to Vilnius in Lithuania where it suffered a gear collapse on landing. None of the 48 passengers and four crew onboard were injured.

A SAS Group spokeswoman says: "When they landed the right landing gear collapsed in a very similar way to what happened in Aalborg in Denmark on [9 September].

"Those two accidents are unfortunately very similar. Thats why Bombardier now has become more highly involved. They have recommended that this type of aircraft with more than 10,000 landing-gear cycles should be inspected and until that is done, they should be grounded."

She says the timeframes of the two accidents - between landing and gear collapse were very similar. But the spokeswoman was unable to give details of the weather at the time, the exact nature of the technical problem or the extent of the damage to the aircraft. The aircraft remains on the ground at Vilnius.

"We dont really have any information [about the state of the aircraft], but you would assess that after having the landing gear break there would be substantial damage."

SAS Group operates 27 Q400s. Of these, 23 are operated by Scandinavian Airlines including the two damaged aircraft. The remainder are operated by Wideroe in Norway.

Recent events have prompted Scandinavian Airlines and Wideroe to ground their Q400 fleets. The spokeswoman says this has caused a huge challenge for the carriers, with 100 cancellations in Denmark today and around 20 across the remainder of its operation.

Its Danish and Swedish domestic and European short-haul services are bearing the brunt of the operational disruption.

The spokeswoman says it is unclear how long the aircraft will be grounded for. "It is going to be a bit bigger than a five minute check. Thats not what were talking about this time. It is definitely affecting traffic today and for the next couple of days. We dont know how long we will have to keep the fleet on the ground."

She adds that neither SAS nor Bombardier had seen similar problems before the 9 September landing gear collapse at Aalborg.

sarius SG

More news snippets...

Daily cost of SAS Q400 grounding put at SKr10-15m

SAS Group can expect a financial impact of SKr10-15 million ($1.5-2.2 million) per day as the result of its decision to ground its Bombardier Q400 fleet for inspections.

Flybe grounds aircraft for checks

The UK airline Flybe has grounded six of its Bombardier Q400 turboprop aircraft while safety checks are carried out on their landing gear.

Qantas grounds Bombadiers after emergency

Qantas has grounded some of its turboprop aircraft which fly routes in regional Queensland, as well as the Canberra to Sydney service, after landing gear problems with the same planes in Europe.

Transport Canada issues Q400 airworthiness directive

Canadian regulatory authorities have issued a formal airworthiness directive calling for all Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 operators to conduct immediate landing gear inspections following two incidents involving Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) aircraft.

Bombardier says in a statement that Transport Canada has issued an airworthiness directive that requires all operators of Q400s to conduct a "general visual inspection" of the left and right main landing gear system as well as main landing gear retract actuator jam nut on each turboprop aircraft.

It also calls for an immediate "detailed visual inspection" of the main landing gear retract actuator on actuators that have accumulated 8,000 or more landings or have been in service for more than four years, whichever comes first.

"Bombardier estimates that this affects approximately 85 Q400 aircraft," says the Canadian manufacturer, adding that "newer actuators will also be inspected with varying timelines depending on the age of the actuator".

sarius SG

Preliminary report out

http://www.hcl.dk/graphics/Synkron...

Pitot SG

could it be due to corrosion? lotsa salt..

sarius SG

yup. the preliminry report i posted above did mention it.

Examination of the internal threads of the retraction/extension actuator piston revealed the presence of corrosion, which led to separation of the rod end from the piston. The separation contributed to the landing gear collapse.