Company Watch - Bombardier.

Sep 17, 2007

All Nippon Airways said on Sept. 13 it had suspended all flights using 14 DHC-8-Q400 aircraft made by Bombardier after the Canadian government said the craft must be inspected. ANA suspended 19 flights on Thursday morning and does not know when it will resume services using Q400s, ANA spokeswoman Keiko Ninomiya said. Bombardier asked airlines worldwide on Sept. 12 to ground 60 of its turboprop planes for inspections. Sep 13, 2007

SAS Scandinavian Airlines' Finnish unit Blue1 said a domestic flight from Helsinki to Kuopio in eastern Finland turned back on Friday after problems with the hatch of the landing gear. The incident followed two crash-landings this week involving the landing gear of SAS Bombardier DHC-8-Q400 aircraft. The Nordic carrier has grounded its fleet of the Canadian-made planes, which make up 10 percent of its aircraft. Blue1 said Friday's incident involved a different type of plane -- an Avro regional jet. "There was no danger for the 17 passengers and 4 crew on the board," Blue1 spokesman Tom Christides said. An SAS turboprop made by Canada's Bombardier made an emergency landing on Wednesday in Lithuania. Another SAS DHC-8-Q400 crash-landed in Denmark on Sunday in a similar incident. Sep 14, 2007

Transport Canada issued an Air Directive Sept. 13 calling for Q400 operators to conduct visual safety inspections of left and right main landing gear systems and main gear retract actuators that have accumulated 8,000 or more landings or have been in service for more than four years. Bombardier sent two separate air safety teams to investigate the SAS incidents that occurred in Aalborg and Vilnius. Sep 14, 2007

Bombardier does not expect a large impact on earnings from problems with its DHC-8-Q400 turboprop that have affected airlines globally, a company official said on Friday. "The impact on our results -- we believe this won't have a large impact," Bert Cruickshank, a director of industry and airline communications at Bombardier, told reporters in Tokyo. "We are responding very quickly to the situation." Bombardier, which is also the world's top train maker, reported a quarterly loss last month as it booked a big write-off on the value of its investment in troubled Metronet. Sep 14, 2007

Bombardier said 85 of 160 DHC-8-Q400 aircraft around the world have been grounded after landing gear on Q400s flown by Scandinavian Airlines Systems collapsed on touchdown in two separate incidents over the past week. Japan's All Nippon Airways - ANA, one of the airlines affected, suspended all flights using DHC-8- Q400 aircraft on Sept. 13 but said it resumed most of them on Friday. Sep 14, 2007

Bombardier said a piston that deploys or retracts landing gear on its DHC-8-Q400 turboprop is the focus of inspections ordered after two crash landings that resulted in grounding planes around the world. The company said it wants to meet Japanese transport ministry officials during his visit, which is his fifth to Japan so far this year, but no plans have been confirmed. In March, Young visited Japan to apologize for an incident, involving an ANA flight to Kochi airport in western Japan. Sep 14, 2007

Bombardier said a preliminary investigation revealed some corrosion on a part of the landing gear that failed on an SAS Scandinavian Airlines DHC-8-Q400 earlier this week. A spokesperson said that the corrosion was evident on the landing gear actuator, which extends and retracts the gear during landing and takeoff. The Canadian manufacturer recommended that all DHC-8-Q400s be grounded after landing gears collapsed on two separate SAS flights on Sept. 9 and Sept. 12 Sep 14, 2007

Bombardier's aerospace business strengthened. The unit, which manufactures Learjets, CRJ regional jets that seat up to 145 passengers and turboprop aircraft, shrugged off the subprime debt problems that have roiled US markets. Since the start of the fiscal year, Bombardier's aerospace division boosted its order backlog 77 percent, to a record USD$18.2 billion, and orders more than doubled from the first half of last year to 187 aircraft from 77, with much of the growth coming in the business jet market, where orders rose by half from the year-earlier quarter to 103. Sep 14, 2007

As a precautionary measure, Bombardier and Goodrich, the landing gear manufacturer, recommend in an All Operator Message (AOM) that operators of DHC-8-Q400 aircraft having accumulated more than 10,000 landing gear cycles (a cycle is one take-off and landing), be grounded until an inspection of the landing gear is carried out. Bombardier has delivered more than 160 DHC-8-Q400 aircraft to airlines around the world, of these there are currently about 60 Q400 aircraft with more than 10,000 landing gear cycles. Transport Canada (TC) has been briefed on these recent events and Bombardier is working with TC to establish the requirement for further corrective actions, if required. Sep 12, 2007

Bombardier Makes Recommendations Following Recent DHC-8-Q400 Aircraft Right Main Landing Gear Incidents. Inspection of Q400 aircraft main landing gear having accumulated more than 10,000 cycles highly recommended on Sept. 12 following a second incident has occurred involving the collapse of a right main landing gear shortly after touchdown on a Bombardier DHC-8-Q400 aircraft operated by SAS. The first incident occurred at Aalborg, Denmark on September 9, 2007. The second incident occurred on September 12, 2007 at Vilnius, Lithuania. There were no reported injuries amongst the crew of four and 48 passengers on board the second aircraft. A Bombardier Air Safety representative has been dispatched to the second incident site to provide assistance to the investigating authorities. Sep 12, 2007

Details of September 12's incident are still emerging, but SAS Scandinavian Airlines has revealed that one of its Bombardier DHC-8-Q400 aircraft, operating as flight SK2748 from Copenhagen to Palanga in Lithuania, "experienced technical difficulties and the crew decided to divert to Vilnius." On landing, "the right main landing gear collapsed." All 48 passengers and four crew were evacuated, but no injuries have been reported. Monday's incident followed the crew of flight SK1209 operating from Copenhagen to Aalborg, also experiencing a problem with the main landing gear and making an emergency landing. Five out of 69 passengers were what SAS describes as "lightly injured." Transport Canada and the Danish Accident Investigation Board are examining the incidents, while a Bombardier Air Safety representative has been sent to the second site to provide help to the authorities. Bombardier has declined to speculate on the nature of the incidents. A spokeswoman for SAS in Stockholm said that further details were expected this afternoon. Sep 12, 2007

SAS Scandinavian Airlines is reeling after two successive incidents in three days that have seen the carrier ground its entire Bombardier DHC-8-Q400 Dash 8 fleet. This morning's, September 12, accident at 01:36, that saw a Q400 divert to Vilnius in Lithuania, comes hard on the heels of Monday's incident that saw another SAS DHC-8 make an emergency landing at Aalborg in Denmark and its right main landing gear collapse. The Canadian manufacturer is urging all DHC-8-Q400 operators - whose aircraft have 10,000 landing cycles or more - be grounded until routine inspection is carried out, while SAS (23 DHC-8s) and partner carrier, Wideroe (four DHC-8s), have stopped all operations of the type. Sep 12, 2007

Horizon Air grounded a quarter of its fleet on Sept. 12 amid safety concerns surrounding the landing gear of its Bombardier DHC-8-Q400 turboprops. The planes will remain out of service while they are inspected. The airline reported 247 cancellations over Wednesday and Thursday and hopes to get back to its regular schedule on Friday. Sister carrier Alaska Airlines is adding flights to help accommodate passengers. Sep 13, 2007

Japan Airlines said it had grounded all 10 of its Bombardier DHC-8-Q400 aircraft earlier on Sept. 13 but some are now up and flying after having been inspected. The airline suspended flights using three aircraft on Wednesday. Bombardier asked airlines worldwide on Sept. 12 to ground 60 of its turboprop planes for inspections after landing gear failures forced two SAS Scandinavian planes to make crash landings in the last couple of days. Sep 13, 2007

Mesa Air Group announced an agreement with United Airlines to replace eight 50-seat Bombardier CRJ-200 aircraft with two 66 -seat Bombardier CRJ-700s. The aircraft will enter service with the Phoenix-based airline in spring 2008 and have a 10-year term. With the new planes, Mesa will operate 22 CRJ-700 aircraft for United Express. Mesa currently operates 185 aircraft with more than 1,100 daily system departures to 184 cities, 45 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, the Bahamas and Mexico. Mesa also operates as Delta Connection, US Airways Express, and independently as Mesa Airlines and go! in Hawaii. Sep 12, 2007

SAS Scandinavian Airlines Bombardier DHC-8-Q400 was involved Sunday in an accident at Aalborg when the right main landing gear collapsed upon landing, breaking the propeller and sending it slicing into the cabin, according to reports. A fire in the right engine was extinguished and all 69 passengers and four crew were evacuated safely, the airline said, adding that five passengers were "lightly injured" during the procedure. SAS canceled flights to/from Aalborg and several to/from Copenhagen as a result. Yesterday it said it discussed the situation with Bombardier and that the manufacturer "confirmed that what happened in Aalborg has never occurred before with this aircraft type at an airline in the world." The carrier said it will be conducting "extraordinary checks" this week of the gear on its entire Q400 fleet. Sep 11, 2007

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