TORONTO — Canadian regulators called for visual inspections of all Bombardier Q-400 turboprop planes worldwide after two separate landing gear failures in three days sent planes skidding across runways.
The airworthiness directive issued by Transport Canada late Wednesday also called for a more detailed visual inspection of planes that have landed more than 8,000 times, or been in service for over four years.
Bombardier, the world's No. 3 civilian airline manufacturer, ordered the grounding of almost 40 percent of 160 turboprop planes in operation worldwide Wednesday, almost immediately after a Scandinavian Airlines turboprop with 52 people on board skidded off a runway in Lithuania.
No one was hurt, but the incident came on the heels of an SAS crash landing in Denmark on Sunday, when five people were injured.
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Danish officials released a preliminary report saying corrosion in the landing gear caused it to collapse.
Transport Canada's advisory said a general visual inspection of all Q-400 landing gear must be conducted. The second advisory relating to a more detailed inspection covers about 85 of the 160 aircraft.
"We understand that this proactive measure will unfortunately inconvenience many of our customers and their passengers," said Stephen Ridolfi, Bombardier's president of regional aircraft,
"However, safety remains our primary concern. We are working diligently with our customers to ensure the affected aircraft return to revenue service as quickly as possible."
Groundings of some Q-400s has so far forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights worldwide.
Both SAS and Horizon Air, a regional U.S. carrier operated by Alaska Air Group Inc., each canceled more than 100 flights on Wednesday to inspect their turboprop aircraft.
Horizon said it canceled 120 flights Wednesday and 154 on Thursday. Thursday's canceled flights include 56 departing from Seattle, 21 from Portland, Ore., 15 from Spokane, Wash., and 12 from Boise, Idaho.
Horizon is expecting to cancel about 121 flights today, but that number could change depending on how the inspections progress, said spokeswoman Laurie Hohisel. By Saturday, Hohisel said travelers should see "significant improvement."
The airline is trying to book passengers whose flights have been canceled on alternate flights, either with Horizon or on another airline, and is offering refunds when that's not possible.
SAS grounded its 27 Bombardier turboprops of the same make, Horizon Air grounded 19, and Austrian Airlines Group said it would not fly the eight it owns, pending inspection.
Bombardier said Qantas, Lufthansa, Flybe, All Nippon Airways and Japan Air Commuter are also grounding Q-400 turboprop planes that have landed or taken off 10,000 times.
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Bombardier Aerospace employs about 600 people at a regional-jet maintenance center at Tucson International Airport.