Bombardier grounds turboprops after mishaps
MONTREAL (Reuters) - Bombardier Inc. (BBDb.TO) asked airlines on Wednesday to ground 60 of its Q400 turboprop aircraft for inspection after landing gear failures forced two of the planes into emergency landings over the previous four days.
Bombardier's class B shares fell up to 5 percent on the Toronto Stock Exchange shortly after the open on Wednesday. At midmorning, the stock was down 23 Canadian cents, or 3.6 percent, at C$6.17.
Japan Airlines Corp (9205.T), All Nippon Airways (9202.T) and SAS (SAS.ST) began pulling some Q400s out of their fleet rotations after Bombardier and landing gear maker Goodrich Corp. (GR.N) recommended inspections for those Q400s that have had more than 10,000 take-off and landing cycles.
Bombardier took the step after right landing gear on Q400s flown by Scandinavia's SAS collapsed on touchdown in two separate incidents.
A Q400 with 52 people on board made an emergency landing and slid off the runway in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Wednesday after a landing gear failure. On Sunday, a Q400 with 73 people aboard crash landed in Aalborg, Denmark, in a similar incident.
SAS said no one was seriously injured in either incident.
Montreal-based Bombardier, the world's third-largest civil aircraft maker and No. 1 manufacturer of trains, said it has delivered more than 160 of the Q400 aircraft to airlines around the world.
"Our priority right now is to get the inspections rolling and to ensure that some of the older aircraft with the higher cycles are visually inspected and get back into operation as quickly as possible," said Bert Cruickshank, a spokesman for Bombardier Aerospace.
Bombardier said Transport Canada has been briefed on the situation and it was working with the government agency to establish requirements for possible further corrective action.
"Until such time as investigations are concluded by the relevant aviation authorities, Bombardier cannot speculate or comment as to the cause of these incidents," the company said in a statement.
Canada's privately held Porter Airlines, said its operations were unaffected by Bombardier's directive as its fleet of Q400s are newer and the carrier found no problems in recent inspections.
The Q400 turboprop, which can seat between 68 and 78 passengers depending on its configuration, has been in operation since 2000.
The SAS mishaps were not the first involving landing gear on a Bombardier Q400 this year.
In March, an All Nippon Airways Q400 carrying 56 passengers and four crew landed safely after its nose gear failed to descend.
(Additional reporting by Lewis Krauskopf in New York, John McCrank in Toronto)
($1=$1.04 Canadian)
