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Monday, October 29, 2007

'Unlucky' Bombardier goes on


It's a third time Dash 8 Q400 aircraft involved in incidents that take its reputation away. Canadian aircraft maker Bombardier who acquired the de Havilland Canada and Canadair long time ago said Sunday its was "disappointed" with a decision by Scandinavian Airlines Systems to permanently discontinue flight operations with the Bombardier Q400 aircraft. SAS announced the decision earlier Sunday following a series of incidents involving the plane's landing gear.
On Saturday, Danish civil aviation grounded all Dash 8 Q400 planes in the SAS fleet after one made an emergency landing at Copenhagen airport. None of the 44 passengers and crew on board were injured.
According to Danish police cited by Ritzau news agency, the landing gear in the plane's right wing failed to deploy.
It was the latest in a string of incidents involving the aircraft which carries around 70 passengers and is manufactured by Bombardier of Canada.
On September 12, SAS grounded its entire fleet of 8 Q400s after two planes' landing gears failed in separate incidents.
But it Bombardier said it did not believe the plane's landing gear was defective.
It said the company and the landing gear manufacturer, Goodrich, "have completed a full review of the Q400 turboprop landing gear system and results have confirmed its safe design and operational integrity."
"Bombardier stands behind the Q400 aircraft," the statement went on to say. "Since entering revenue service in February 2000, the Q400 turboprop has proven itself to be a safe and reliable aircraft with over 150 Q400 aircraft in operation among 22 operators around the world."
It's well known that long time ago de Havilland Canada produced the Dash familiy of aircraft along the military version. I'm still remembered how the Test Pilot crash the Dash 7 or 8 while executing a STOL landing, the video of the crash still around in the net. The military version since 60's the Caribou and Buffalo is a work horse of certain air force, but like USAF and RMAF they retired it after several crash.
I'll think because of this tarnished reputation operators shy away from Bombardier aircraft more like shyness away from Russian Antonov aircraft. As example, Malaysian Firefly low cost subsidiary of MAS could purchase Bombardier aircraft instead opt to ATR72-500s to replaced its aging fleet of Fokker 50. Come 2008, 10 brand new 72 seats ATR72-500s model airplanes will be joining his existing fleet.

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