Flybe grounds planes amid safety fears
Flybe has grounded its Bombardier Q400 planes
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Wednesday, 12, Sep 2007 01:06
UK airline Flybe has grounded six of its planes to allow safety checks to be carried out on their landing gear.
In a statement the company confirmed that the decision had been taken regarding its Q400 turboprop aircraft after the plane's manufacturer Bombardier issued a safety notice in the wake of two crash landings involving the model this week.
Canadian-based Bombardier said that as a precautionary measure it was recommending that all Q400's with over 10,000 landings should be grounded in order for inspections on their landing gear to be carried out.
"Flybe has immediately followed this advice and is inspecting the aircraft," said the airline.
"We are reviewing options to minimise disruption to today's flying programme," the company added.
Flybe, which has a total fleet of 74 aircraft, said that several routes were affected by the grounding of its Q400s. Flights to Edinburgh, Belfast and Gatwick are among those to be hit by the move, while services from the Isle of Man, Manchester, Southampton and the Channel Islands are also affected.
Bombardier and Goodrich, the manufacturer of landing gear for its Q400's, have recommended that some models of the aircraft be grounded following two safety incidents involving the planes in the past three days.
Two Q400's owned by the Scandinavian Air Service have crashed on landing in Europe, with the first incident occurring at Aalborg, Denmark, on September 9th. Noone was injured as a result.
A second incident involving a Q400 also occurred at Vilnius in Lithuania today. Bombardier said that the incident involved "the collapse of a right main landing gear shortly after touchdown".
There were no reported injuries as a result of today's incident, which involved a crew of four and 48 passengers.
"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 stressed.