2007 Bombardier Q400 Scandinavian Airlines Gear Accidents

In September 2007, two separate accidents due to similar landing gear failures occurred within four days of each other on Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft operated by Scandinavian Airlines (SAS). Had A third incident, again with a SAS aircraft, occurred in October 2007, leading to the withdrawal of the type from the airline's fleet. lived.

Scandinavian Airlines Flight 1207
Scandinavian Airlines Flight 1209, a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 with the registration LN-RDK, took off from Copenhagen Airport, Denmark, on September 9, 2007. It was on a domestic flight to Aalborg Airport.

Prior to landing, the right main landing gear failed to lock and the crew circled for an hour while trying to fix the problem then preparing for an emergency landing. After the aircraft touched down, the right landing gear collapsed, the right wing hit the ground, and a fire broke out. The fire went out before the aircraft came to rest and all passengers and crew were evacuated. Five people suffered minor injuries, some from parts of the propeller entering the cabin and others from the evacuation.

Investigation
When the handle for lowering the landing gear was activated, the indicator showed two green and one red light. The red light indicated that the right main gear was not locked in position. The landing was aborted. Attempts at lowering the gear manually were also unsuccessful. An investigation into the cause of the failure to deploy revealed that the right main gear hydraulic actuator eyebolt had broken away from the actuator. A further analysis of the actuator showed corrosion of the threads on both the inside threads of the piston rod and the outside threads of the rod end, leading to reduced mechanical strength of the actuator and eventual failure.

On September 19, 2007, the prosecutor of Stockholm commenced a preliminary investigation regarding suspicion of creating danger to another person.

It Happens Again
A second Bombardier Q400, operating as Scandinavian Airlines Flight 2748, took off from Copenhagen Airport, Denmark, on September 12, 2007. It was headed to Palanga, Lithuania, but was diverted to Vilnius International Airport when landing gear problems were discovered before landing. Again, the right landing gear collapsed immediately after the aircraft touched down. All passengers and crew were evacuated safely. The local officials at Vilnius International Airport noted that this was the most serious incident in recent years. This accident was also caused by corroded threads in the piston rod and rod end.

Again…?
On October 27, 2007, a Q400 registered LN-RDI was operating SAS Flight 2867 from Bergen, Norway to Copenhagen, Denmark with 40 passengers and 4 crew members when problems with the main landing gear were discovered. After waiting about two hours in the air to burn fuel and troubleshoot, the pilots attempted a prepared emergency landing. The pilots were forced to land the aircraft with the right main landing gear up. The right engine was shut down prior to the landing, because in the previous landings the propeller had hit the ground and shards of it ripped into the fuselage. This was not on the emergency checklist, rather it was the pilots making a safety-based decision. The aircraft stopped on the runway at 16:53 local time with the right wing touching the surface. It did not catch fire and the passengers and the crew were evacuated quickly. There were no serious injuries. The aircraft in question was one of six that had been cleared to fly just a month before, following the grounding of the entire Scandinavian Airlines Q400 fleet due to similar landing gear issues. The entire fleet was grounded again following the accident.

Aftermath
After the second incident in Vilnius, SAS grounded its entire Q400 fleet consisting of 27 aircraft, and a few hours later the manufacturer Bombardier Aerospace recommended that all Q400 aircraft with more than 10,000 flights stay grounded until further notice, affecting about 60 of the 160 Q400 aircraft then in service worldwide. As a result, several hundred flights were cancelled around the world. Horizon Airgrounded nineteen of its aircraft and Austrian Airlines grounded eight.

On September 13, 2007, Transport Canada issued an Airworthiness Directive applicable to Bombardier Q400 turboprop aircraft instructing all Q400 aircraft operators to conduct a general visual inspection of the left and right main landing gear systems and main landing gear retract actuator jam nuts. This effectively grounded all Q400 aircraft until the inspection had been carried out.

On September 14, 2007, Bombardier issued an All-Operators Message (AOM) recommending new procedures concerning the landing gear inspection for all aircraft with more than 8,000 flights. Bombardier acknowledged the likelihood of corrosion developing inside the retract actuator.

Previous maintenance procedures mandated checking this component after 15,000 landings. The new maintenance schedule affected about 85 of the 165 Q400 aircraft worldwide. Some operators found that spare parts for this unexpected actuator replacement program were not available, grounding their aircraft indefinitely.

Investigators detected corrosion inside actuators on 25 of 27 aircraft they checked. Accordingly, SAS decided to continue the grounding of its Q400 fleet until all the affected parts were replaced.

On October 28, 2007, SAS announced that it would retire its entire fleet of Q400 aircraft after a third accident involving the landing gear occurred the day prior.

On March 10, 2008, a multi-party agreement was announced, attempting to finalize the roles of maintenance and manufacture in causing the SAS accidents; as settlement the airline and its partners ordered a replacement set of short-haul aircraft from Bombardier, and in turn received a US$164 million discount.

It has been speculated that a November 2007 shakeup of Bombardier management was spurred by the Q400 landing gear issues.