Landing gear damage on 23 of SAS's Dash 8's-report
COPENHAGEN, Sept 21 (Reuters) - An inspection of SAS's (SAS.ST) remaining Dash 8-400 aircraft has shown that 23 out of the 25 planes had corrosion damage on their landing gear, Danish trade paper Ingenioren reported on Friday.
SAS Dash 8-400 planes crash landed in Lithuania on Sept. 12 and in Denmark on Sept. 9 after their landing gear failed. No one was seriously hurt in either incident.
Ingenioren quoted Karl Erik Mortensen, head of flight inspection at the Scandinavian civil aviation authorities, as saying that corrosion levels varied, but that several of the aircraft had damage on both sets of landing gear.
SAS was not immediately available to comment.
On Thursday, the Danish Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the flight ban on SAS's Dash 8-400 aircraft would be lifted gradually as each plane is inspected.
The CAA currently holds the rotating chairmanship of Scandinavian aviation authorities, which also include Sweden and Norway.
SAS, which has cancelled hundreds of flights since Sept. 12, has said grounding the planes, made by Canadian firm Bombardier (BBDb.TO), costs up to 15 million Swedish crowns ($2.28 million) per day.
Half of SAS is owned by the governments of Sweden, Denmark and Norway.
((Reporting by Kim McLaughlin, editing by Erica Billingham; Copenhagen newsroom +45 33 96 96 51, kim.mclaughlin@reuters.com))
($1=6.593 Swedish Crown) Keywords: SAS PLANES/
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