VILNIUS - A Scandinavian Airlines System flight from Copenhagen crash-landed at Vilnius airport in the early hours of Sep. 12 after a landing gear malfunction. None of the 48 passengers or four crew on board were injured.
The Dash 8-400 propeller plane was approaching Palanga airport when the pilots noticed the malfunction and diverted to Vilnius' larger runway in order to execute an emergency landing. That proved to be a sensible precaution as the plane ended up nearly 30 meters off the tarmac.
"It was landing in extreme conditions for the pilots, who did their job perfectly," said transport ministry chief investigator Kestutis Povilonis.
"When landing they switched off the engines one after another and even though there were sparks when sliding [along the runway], fire was avoided."
"The primary investigation will take place in Lithuania. We do not know yet what investigations will be needed, but it could take [several] months. Later the investigation can be transferred abroad," Povilonis said.
In his words, according to the preliminary data, the failure of the right gear of the plane could be mechanical and the incident is qualified as "dangerous enough" because there was a threat of fire.
Director of security at Vilnius Airport Juozas Zekas told reporters that the energency services behaved very professionally while the plane was landing.
SAS' in-house investigation service is on the scene in Vilnius to assist government investigators.
It is the second such incident in less than a week. A plane of the same type made an emergency landing at Aalborg airport in Denmark on Sep. 9 after its landing gear collapsed. No-one was seriously injured.
The Canadian manufacturer of the Dash 8-400, Bombardier, is in the process of developing an inspection programme. As a precautionary measure, Bombardier is recommending that all aircraft worldwide of the same type with more than 10,000 flights logged should be grounded until the recommended inspection is carried out. Until now, the plane's safety record has been impeccable and it is renowned as a robust plane ideally suited to the harsh conditions of northern latitudes.
SAS has already decided to ground its entire fleet of Dash 8-400 aircraft until further notice. No aircraft will be released for operations until inspections have been carried out, a company statement said.
