12/02/12, 12:04:15 EST

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Grounding of turboprop wreaks havoc on airline schedules

iht.com

OTTAWA: Hundreds of flights in Asia, North America and Europe were canceled or delayed Thursday as airlines continued to examine landing gear on about 60 Bombardier regional airliners for defects that could cause their collapse.

Bombardier, which is based in Montreal, recommended that airlines ground some of its Q400 models after the right-wing landing gear on a Scandinavian Airlines System plane crumpled during an emergency landing early Wednesday in Lithuania. Another Q400 operated by SAS suffered a similar failure in Denmark on Sunday.

In March, a third Q400 landed in a shower of sparks in Japan after its front landing gear did not lower.

Bombardier asked airlines to remove from service any Q400s that have gone through at least 10,000 takeoffs and landings.

[Qantas Airways, the biggest airline in Australia, said Thursday that it had grounded six of its seven Q400 planes after inspections in the morning, Bloomberg News reported from Sydney. The seventh aircraft had already been cleared and was operating as normal.]

[All Nippon Airways said it had suspended all flights using 14 Q400 aircraft, Reuters reported from Tokyo. The airline suspended 19 flights Thursday morning and did not know when it would resume services using Q400s, a ANA spokeswoman said.]

Bombardier and Goodrich, which makes the landing gear for the Q400, said they did not know what had caused the two most recent problems.

"Until such time as investigations are concluded by the relevant aviation authorities, Bombardier cannot speculate or comment as to the cause of these incidents," the companies' statement said.

Marc Duchesne, a spokesman for Bombardier, said the pilots in the two most recent collapses had been able to extend their landing gears, unlike their Japanese counterparts.

Preliminary data, Duchesne said, indicated that the problems behind the recent incidents were not related to the failure in March, which was caused by an electrical problem.

No one was seriously injured in any of the crash landings.

SAS said that it would ground all 27 Q400s it owns even though only 20 of them have made more than 10,000 flights. The decision caused 112 flights to be canceled.

In the United States, the biggest service disruption came from Horizon Air, which withdrew 19 of its 33 Bombardier Q400s. Allen Weymiller, a spokesman for the regional air carrier, which is owned by Alaska Air Group, said that the move caused 113 flight cancellations Wednesday and that the airline expected the same number of cancellations Thursday.

In an attempt to restore service, Horizon will borrow 13 jet airliners from Alaska Airlines, a corporate sibling, each with about twice the seating capacity of the Q400s.

Frontier Airlines, which is based in Denver, recently took delivery of two Q400s but neither plane has been entered into service. No other carrier in the United States flies the airplane.

The Q400 entered service in 2000 and can seat 68 to 78 passengers. It is the latest in a series of turboprops designed mainly for regional use that were first developed by de Havilland Canada, owned by Boeing before being acquired by Bombardier.

 Printable Version  | published Sep 13, 2007