SEATTLE (AP)
Horizon Air canceled more than 100 flights Wednesday and said more cancelations were likely today as it works to inspect turboprop planes after Bombardier Inc. ordered the grounding of all Q400 planes with at least 10,000 flights. The move came after the landing gear on a Scandinavian Airlines Q400 failed, sending it skidding of f a runway in Lithuania, the second such incident in three days. Montreal-based Bombardier said the grounding would affect 60 of the 160 Q400 aircraft that have been delivered worldwide. SAS grounded its 27 Q400s, Horizon grounded 19, and Austrian Airlines Group said it grounded eight. Bombardier Inc. would not comment on who operates the remaining six. Horizon, a subsidiary of Seattle-based Alaska Air Group, could not immediately say how many passengers were affected or how long the planes would be out of service. Horizon canceled 113 flights that were scheduled to depart on Wednesday and was working to rebook passengers on other flights. As o f mi d - a f t e r n o o n Wednesday, the airline had not been able to begin inspections because it was waiting for a directive from the Federal Aviat i on Admini s t rat i on, Horizon spokesman Al len Weymiller said. It was "very Likely" that a comparable number of Horizon flights would be canceled today, he said. Wednesday's cancelations accounted for about a quarter of the roughly 500 flights Horizon operates daily to 48 cities in California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, British Columbia and Alberta. Destinations affected by Horizon's cancelations included Spokane, Bellingham and Pasco, Wash.; Portland and Eugene, Ore.; Boise and Idaho Falls, Idaho; Billings, Bozeman and Kalispell, Mont.; Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia, and Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta. Fourteen flights on sister carrier Alaska Airlines were added to pick up some of the slack, and Horizon was also working to book passengers on some of its other planes. Earlier on Wednesday, an SAS aircraft with 52 people onboard skidded off a runway in Lithuania after the landing gear failed, forcing an emergency touchdown. No one was injured. On Sunday, five people were slightly injured when another SAS turboprop suffered a similar failure, catching fire after its right landing gear collapsed during an emergency landing in Denmark. Horizon operates 76 planes, all manufactured by Bombardier. In addition to Q400s, the fleet includes Bombardier CRJ-700s and Q200s. Horizon has been flying Q400s since 2001 and has not experienced any problems with the aircraft, Boren said. In a statement, Horizon President Jeff Pinneo apologized for the inconvenience to passengers. "Our teams are working around the clock, in conjunction with Bombardier, to complete the necessary inspections and return the affected aircraft to service as quickly as possible," he said. Montreal-based Bombardier said it could not speculate or comment about the cause of the accidents.
