Having met all the parties relevant to the three SAS Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 undercarriage accidents that occurred in the last month, the European Aviation Safety Agency has concluded they were not the result of a design fault.
EASA says it invited officials from the airworthiness authorities of Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Canada, from the aircraft manufacturer Bombardier and gear producer Goodrich to an airworthiness review meeting on the type at the agency's headquarters in Cologne last week.
"All participants concluded that the incident of an SAS Dash 8-400 on 27 October at Copenhagen was not due to a design error and that the airworthiness of the aircraft is maintained," says EASA, adding: "The agency understands that the Scandinavian airworthiness authorities will reissue the certificates of airworthiness relevant to this aircraft type in the coming days."
The meeting also confirmed that the incidents with SAS Q400s on 9 September (Aalborg, Denmark) and 12 September (Vilnius, Lithuania), were not related to the incident on 27 October. The two earlier incidents were related to corrosion in the retraction actuators, and EASA followed the Transportation Safety Board of Canada by issuing an airworthiness directive requiring inspection of the relevant parts.
Source: Flight International
