UPDATE 1-SAS offers to buy Estonian Air stake

* Offers to buy 34 pct stake held by Estonian govt

* Estonia said would be willing to sell, depends on price

* Estonian valuation of stake 2 yrs ago was $16.5 mln

(Adds Estonian PM comments, safety incident)

STOCKHOLM, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Scandinavian airline SAS (SAS.ST) offered on Thursday to buy a 34 percent government stake in Estonian Air and take control of the carrier, a proposal the Baltic state indicated it was ready to consider.

Separately, an SAS flight from Stockholm to Chicago was forced to make an early landing in Norway due to engine trouble. The firm's safety record has been under scrutiny after a series of crash-landings last year and a deadly crash after takeoff of a flight by its Spanair subsidiary.

SAS, which owns 49 percent of Estonian Air, informed the Estonian government of the offer in a letter, SAS spokesman Sture Stolen told Reuters. "We are interested in taking over the government's shares in Estonian Air," Stolen said.

SAS believes Estonian Air needs capital.

"It is not a highly critical situation, but it will be increasingly critical, and to avoid a situation where nobody is taking responsibility for the company, we have said that we are willing to look into this," he said.

Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said the state was prepared to sell. "We are ready to divest state-owned shares. Everything depends on the prices," Ansip told reporters at a regular government news conference.

Ansip said a review of state assets two years ago valued the stake at 200 million Estonian kroons ($16.5 million).

After rapid expansion in recent years, the Estonian economy has been hit hard by the global credit crunch. Gross domestic product contracted sharply in the third quarter.

SAS spokesman Stolen declined to comment on the possible terms of any deal, but said financing a purchase would not be a problem as the current holding in Estonian Air represents a small part of the group.

SAS, however, has its own share of problems.

Earlier this year it tried to sell its money-losing Spanair unit but abandoned the effort in June due to tough market conditions.

In August, a Spanair flight crashed on takeoff from Madrid, killing 154 people.

On Thursday, SAS said an Airbus A330 aircraft carrying 193 people was forced to land in Trondheim, Norway, because of a problem with one of its two engines.

An SAS spokesman said that after unsuccessfully trying to fix the problem, the pilots made a normal, controlled landing at the nearest airport. (Reporting by Katharina Gustafsson in Stockholm and David Mardiste in Tallinn, writing by Victoria Klesty; Editing Simon Jessop)