SAS removes Q400s from fleet due to safety concerns

Scandinavian Airlines’ parent SAS Group held an unscheduled board meeting on Sunday (October 28) and decided immediately to remove all 27 Dash 8-400s, also known as Q400s, from its fleet. The move was prompted by repeated problems with collapsing landing gear; the airline suffered an incident over the weekend that was its third in two months with the Q400, which is manufactured by Canada’sCanada’s Bombardier. SAS said the Q400s represent about five percent of its total capacity, and that it will replace them by reallocating other planes in its fleet and by leasing new equipment. The question for U.S. travelers: Will the FAA order any action against Q400s? Last month, after the first two incidents, the planes had to be inspected if they had been in service a certain length of time. Those inspections caused some turmoil in the schedules of the largest U.S. operator of Q400s -- Horizon Airlines, a partner of Alaska Airlines, which has 33 of the 70-seat turboprops. Frontier Airlines’ new regional subsidiary, Lynx Aviation – which has not yet started flying – also plans to operate a fleet of 10 Q400s.