Category: News Author : JR Posted: February 13, 2009
Tags : 74 seat q400 bombardier aircraft, bombardier, bombardier dash, bombardier dash 8, bombardier dash 8 q400, bombardier dash 8 q400 74 seat turboprop, bombardier q400, buffalo plane crash, colgan air, continental 3407, continental flight 3407, flight 3407, q400, q400 aircraft, q400 bombardier, q400 bombardier aircraft
The same type of plane that crashed into a home in Buffalo this week has been cited in numerous incidents in the past and was consequently removed from one airline’s fleet. The plane, a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 74-seat turboprop, went down in New York late Thursday night. All 49 passengers — including Beverly Eckert, a woman widowed by 9/11 — died.
Bombardier Q400: Past Problems
The Bombardier Q400 series of planes has been involved in 13 previous incidents, Bloomberg reports, none of which resulted in deaths. The majority happened during landing, and many centered around landing gear issues.
The parent company of Scandinavian Airlines, as such, grounded its entire fleet of Q400s in 2007. The airline stopped using the planes altogether soon thereafter. Scandinavian said landing gear malfunctions had caused three crashes within a timespan of six weeks.
“Confidence in the Q400 has diminished considerably, and our customers are becoming increasingly doubtful about flying in this type of aircraft,” the airline’s president and CEO said in a statement issued in October of 2007. “Accordingly, with the board of directors’ approval, I have decided to immediately remove Dash 8 Q400 aircraft from service.”
Bombardier responded by saying it was “disappointed” with the decision, and that it “[stood] behind the Q400 aircraft.”
About Buffalo’s Bombardier Dash 8 Q400
The Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 involved in Thursday’s crash, registration number N200WQ, was built in 2008. It had been in the hands of Colgan Air — which operated Continental flight 3407 on behalf of Continental Airlines — since April of last year.
Bombardier released the following statement Friday regarding the crash:
“Bombardier confirms a Dash 8 Q400 aircraft was involved in an accident near Buffalo, New York on February 12. We extend our sympathies to the families of those who perished in this accident. Bombardier has dispatched a product safety and technical team to the site to assist the National Transportation Safety Board with their investigation.
Until such time as the investigators release any information or findings, Bombardier cannot comment further or speculate on the cause of this accident.”
Feb 13, 2009
The Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 is a flying rock. The fuselage to wing ratio supports that. If you have a death wish this is the plane for you.
Feb 16, 2009
Bombardier Q400 is an utter failure. I am glad we removed those planes from our fleet. The incidents that have occured by now must almost face criminal charges due to the magnitude of malfunctions occuring!! I suggets Bombardier to upgrade all across the board! If not the tide turn forver against them and they will go out of business in the passenger airplane category. They are already tainted. Very very heavily…
Feb 17, 2009
The ATR-72 American Eagle commuter aircraft that crashed in Indiana in 1994 due to icing was a high-wing, twin turboprop, T-tail — exactly the same configuration as the Bombardier Q400 that crashed in Buffalo. Apparently there's something about that design that has an affinity for icing.
If you look at a front elevation of the Q400, there is a HELL of a lot of tail sailing above the fuselage. It's tempting to hypothesize that the massive tail surface collected a huge load of ice while on autopilot. When the loads on the autopilot finally exceeded its limits (despite, presumably, full nose-down trim), autopilot switched itself off. At that instant the weight of the ice-laden tail, way out at the end of the moment-arm so it had lots of leverage, snapped the nose up 31 degrees. The aircraft stalled.
The rest of the aircraft was carrying a lot of ice, too, increasing its weight and probably diminishing the lift of the wings and the effectiveness of the control surfaces.
If this had happened at 12,000 feet, he might have had an outside chance to regain control and tiptoe that snowball to warmer or drier air. But at 1200' AGL, he was screwed.
Here's the really insidious thing about these kinds of accidents — the evidence disappears. The ice melts and/or vanishes due to impact, post crash fire or warmer temperatures on the ground.
The lesson? Stay in the loop and hand-fly your airplane. If the pilot had been on the yoke, by the time the autopilot finally kicked off, he'd have been bench pressing 150 pounds just to keep the nose down. He'd have gotten some warning signs before it became lethal.