The Q400 has been plagued by a history of landing gear malfunctions. Here, the landing gear on the plane's right side gives in as the aircraft touches down.
Porter Airlines operating out of the island airport flies the Q400, a turboprop aircraft maded by Bombardier. Porter currently has six Q400s and has announced that it will expand its fleet to twenty Q400s. This is a list of recent safety problems we have heard about with the Q400 airplanes.
December 2006: Porter Airlines operating out of the Toronto Island airport reported a landing gear malfunction on a flight. The landing gear would not come down and the pilots had to manually lower it. The plane was diverted to Pearson Airport, where it landed safely.
March 2007: A Q400 operated by All Nippon Airways of Japan had a landing gear malfunction that forced the pilot to make an emergency landing. The plane landed on its nose and scraped along the runway, causing a shower of sparks.
May 2007: On a Q400 flight from Copenhagen to Aalborg, Scandinavian Airlines pilots could not retract the front wheel and were forced to return to the airport.
May 2007: Scandinavian Airlines pilots were unable to retract the entire landing gear on a Q400 flight from Stuttgart to Copenhagen.
July, 2007: A tire of a Scandinavian Airlines Q400 plane exploded after takeoff in Copenhagen.
September 4, 2007: A Porter Airlines Q400 flight reported landing gear problems in Montreal, which required a “precautionary landing.”
September 9, 2007: A Scandinavian Airlines Q400 made an emergency landing in Aalborg, Denmark. The plane, carrying 73 people, ran part way down the runway before part of the landing gear collapsed and an engine caught fire. One propeller blade pierced the plane's cabin. Five people suffered minor injuries.
September 12, 2007: A Scandinavian Airlines Q400, carrying four crew and 48 passengers, was landing at an airport in Vilnius, Lithuania when its landing gear failed to deploy properly. The aircraft was seriously damaged.
The Swedish Emergency Commission has confirmed that there are technical problems with the Q400. Ola Reinholdt, Flight Chief of Scandinavian Airlines said, “We have had more technical problems with the Q400 than with our other planes.”
September 12, 2007: Bombardier Inc. recommended that all Q400 aircraft that have taken off and landed more than 10,000 times be grounded for inspection.
September 13, 2007: Canadian regulators called for visual inspections of all Bombardier Q400. On the same day Porter Airlines announced that it had visually inspected its Q400s without disrupting its schedule.
October 27, 2007: A Scandinavian Airlines Q400 could not lower one of its landing gear mechanisms. The plane landed at Copenhagen Airport and veered off the runway.
October 27, 2007: Scandinavian Airlines decided to permanently ground all of the Q400s and asked Bombardier to take back all of these aircraft and give them financial compensation.
October 30, 2007: A Porter Q400 flight turned back to Montreal’s Trudeau Airport when the landing gear failed to retract after take-.off
Despite these incidents, Bombardier, Porter Airlines and Transport Canada continue to claim that the Q400 is a safe aircraft. Porter has said that the landing-gear problems with the Q400s were with aircraft built early in the production run, and the Porter planes aircraft were built more recently. But Porter planes have also experienced landing gear problems.
In response to these developments members of CommunityAIR argued in a press release that a visual inspection is inadequate protection for the public. We concluded, “In our view the Porter Q400 planes must be grounded until there is a full safety audit by an independent aviation expert.”
Our demands for a safety audit have been rejected by the Minister of Transport. On October 31, 2007, the minister’s assistant replied to a letter written by CommunityAIR: “Based on the points that your letter raises with respect to the safety of TCCA’s (Toronto City Centre Airport) operations, Transport Canada has no reason to suspend operations at TCCA and conduct a safety audit at this time.”