Bombardier crashes spur calls for action

A report from The Toronto Star says that European air safety officials have requested an “immediate crisis meeting” with their Canadian counterparts following a third landing-gear failure of a Bombardier-built turboprop plane operated by Scandinavian Airlines in less than two months.

The European Aviation Safety Agency made the request to discuss the airworthiness of Bombardier Inc.’s Q-400 turboprop over the weekend, saying in a statement it is “very concerned” about the most recent accident and its relation to other Q-400 incidents.

But Transport Canada said yesterday that it has recommended the meeting be held later in the week once more information is available about the crash landing in Denmark on Saturday.

“We wanted to have enough preliminary information to discuss with them in an educated manner their concerns over the Q-400,” said Lucie Vignola, a Transport Canada spokesperson, adding that such meetings are common following an accident of this nature.

Bombardier, meanwhile, will meet with European safety officials next week, a spokesperson said.

Stockholm-based SAS said on Sunday it has decided to permanently pull all 27 of its Q-400 aircraft from its fleet after one of them, carrying 40 passengers and four SAS crew, was forced to make an emergency landing in Copenhagen on Saturday, after its landing gear failed to fully extend.

There were no injuries in the crash landing.

There are about 160 Q-400s in operation around the world, including several operated by Qantas.

Bombardier said yesterday that the most recent SAS incident doesn’t appear to be related to the first two. That’s because early reports suggest the plane’s landing gear failed to fully extend, whereas the earlier incidents involved fully extended landing gear.

As well, SAS had already replaced the component – an actuator piston – that was suspected to have caused the first two SAS landing-gear failures.

Nevertheless, SAS said it had no choice but to ground the fleet because of mounting customer concerns over the Q-400’s safety record.

“Confidence in the Q-400 has diminished considerably and our customers are becoming increasingly doubtful about flying in this type of aircraft,” SAS chief executive officer Mats Jansson said in a statement.

Sture Stoelen, the head of investor relations for SAS, said the airline has already cancelled about 200 flights and expects to lose as much as $63 million (U.S.) by the end of the year.

He said the airline intends to seek compensation from Bombardier, but declined to say how much.  The airline said earlier this month that was seeking $77 million from the plane-maker to pay for the cost of temporarily grounding its Q-400 fleet while inspections were carried out and key components were replaced.

Bombardier, whose shares fell 19 cents (Canadian) yesterday to close at $5.34 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, said last week that a European airline had placed a $267 million order for 10 of the planes.

Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst with Teal Group, a consulting firm, said the string of incidents at SAS is damaging Bombardier’s reputation and could put a dent in future orders – regardless of who is ultimately determined to be responsible for the landing-gear malfunctions.

“They need to make a large-scale commitment to fixing this problem,” Aboulafia said.

A Report by The Mole from The Toronto Star