Citing “diminished confidence in the aircraft,” Scandinavian airline SAS has issued a statement today stating that it has decided to immediately discontinue use of the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft.

The announcement comes after yet another “incident” involving the aircraft and SAS.

Saturday an SAS Q400 crash landed at Copenhagen airport. There were no deaths or serious injuries reported in the accident.

On Sept. 9, an SAS Q400 caught fire after its landing gear failed upon arrival in Aalborg, Denmark. Five of the 69 passengers onboard were injured. On Sept. 12, a portion of yet another SAS Q400’s landing gear collapsed after the plane landed in Vilnius, Lithuania.

The two crashes in September prompted a grounding of all Q400s worldwide. The grounding and subsequent aircraft inspections showed evidence of corrosion in the landing gear mechanisms of other aircraft.

“Confidence in the Q400 has diminished considerably and our customers are becoming increasingly doubtful about flying in this type of aircraft,” said SAS CEO Mats Jansson in a statement.

The move came after Scandinavian aviation authorities on Saturday issued a new flight ban on all SAS’s Q400 turboprops.

The airline said that it will seek compensation of $87 million from Bombardier. No matter what the cause of the incident was on Saturday, this is one very black eye for Bombardier.

This can’t be good news for Horizon Airlines, the regional partner of Alaska Air Group either. The airline has 33 Q400s underfoot with an order in place for 15 additional aircraft. Frontier Airlines has also structured its new Lynx Aviation unit around the aircraft. Frontier has taken delivery of five of 10 total aircraft on order.

Bloomberg reports that Bill Conniff, spokesperson for Alaska AIr Group, said today that Horizon plans to keep flying its Q400 fleet.

I don’t know about you, but this baseball game tonight is a total waste of time.  I’d much rather be on an A380.

Specifically the one that is now enroute between Singapore and Sydney.

Yep. The inaugural Singapore “Flight of the Beast” is now in the air. Can’t wait to hear the first reports from onboard the flight.

Not surprisingly, spoofs have been making the Internet rounds the last couple of days.

Here’s a particularly good one from the Daily Mash I read today.

Safety Fears After A380 On-board Safari Incident

SAFETY concerns have been raised about the A380 super-jumbo after two passengers were attacked by lions during their on-board safari.

The two business class passengers had to be rescued when their Land Rover became bogged down near a watering hole and they tried to get back to their flat-bed seats on foot.

The incident comes as Airbus announced that the next generation of A380s will feature a 25,000 seat auditorium based on the Roman Colosseum.

Vasily Borodin, vice-president of Russia’s Aeroflot, said first class passengers will be able choose up to a dozen people from economy and then command them to fight to the death.

“The winners and their families will be upgraded, so we should get some terrific contests,” he added.

But the giant plane has been criticised by business travellers after it emerged that its on-board golf course was only nine holes, and not the 7000-yard championship links as originally promised.

Jean Floriette, A380 lead designer, said new planes coming off the production line would be upgraded to include a Jack Niklaus designed 18-hole course with club house and spa, although he admitted this could lead to compromises elsewhere.

He said: “We may end up having to cut back a bit on the grouse moor, but there’s already a stag hunt and some world-class salmon fishing, so we hope this minor change will not inconvenience passengers too much.”

He said there was no question of the A380 jettisoning Der Stuka, it’s six storey high water slide which sends passengers down a 250 feet near vertical drop and on to a 300 foot long runway.

The Associated Press reports tonight that American Airlines and the TWU have ended talks concerning a potential “extension” of the current  TWU contract.

Instead of extending the current contract that expires in May, the company and the TWU will now apparently start at square one, negotiating an entirely new contract.

“Over the past few weeks, American Airlines and the Transport Workers Union held a series of informal, facilitated meetings to discuss a limited number of contract issues,” said American spokeswoman Sue Gordon. “These meetings have concluded and the parties have agreed to proceed into formal negotiations … as originally planned beginning Nov. 7.”

No question this is a major setback for American management. American clearly was trying to get the TWU to sign on to an extension — which would have taken some of the pressure off. Now, the airline is again looking at three major labor contracts being negotiated at the same time.

Click here to read the Associated Press article.

Technorati Tags: airline unions, American Airlines, TWU

Here we go. Here’s the breaking story at the Star-Bulletin.

Yet another person we know who was there in the courtroom today has sent us a note updating us on today’s events. Yes, the story gets even more bizarre as the days go by.

In reading through the notes it appears that Mesa’s attorney informed the court today that it had possession of two hard drives that were supposedly hidden by Mesa CFO Peter Murnane until 9/13 but only disclosed to Hawaiian attorneys and the court this morning as a basis for the judge not to rule on the motion for sanctions, and to delay ruling on the trial.  This goes to the argument that Mesa was trying to show again how they were victimized by their own CFO.

Hawaiian’s attorney Sidney Levinson then apparently pointed out that this stunt was another example of how Mesa was trying to forestall a decision on the motion by only providing evidence to Hawaiian and to the court when it is convenient for them.

Levinson noted that instead of “firing this CFO who was victimizing them,” Mesa put him on paid administrative leave and gave him a “warm pat on the back” in a press release, commending him for his fine work.

Judge Robert Faris denied Mesa attorney Maxwell Blecher’s request not to rule, noting that the discovery deadline had passed and if Mesa could not produce documents that was Mesa’s  fault.

Both sides then made their closing arguments to the judge.

Drumroll please.

And as for the judge’s ruling?

Judge Robert Faris  ruled today that Mesa Air Group did intentionally destroy evidence that could have been used by Hawaiian Airlines in the lawsuit against its competitor.

Faris also found that Mesa executives made their decision to start a their low fare airline in 2006 based on information they got while looking at Hawaiian’s books  — when the airline was still in bankruptcy protection.

The amount being sought by Hawaiian in damages was also disclosed today in court documents. That amount is $173 million.

Hawaiian Airlines is also seeking an injunction that would block Mesa’s interisland carrier, go!, from operating in Hawaii for a year.

Ticker: (Nasdaq:MESA), (AMEX:HA)

Technorati Tags: airline CEOs, Hawaiian Airlines, Mesa Airlines, puppy

According to CNN, the problem was in the telephone company’s switching offices.

Reports say that the Memphis Center ATC lost all frequencies about 2 hours ago and that its airspace was shut down.

The Fox television station in Memphis reports that FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said a ground stop had been in place for any flight that would transition through the airspace. “We held them on the ground wherever they were, whether it was Miami, Seattle, Los Angeles, Boston,” she is quoted as saying.

The airspace was completely cleared at 1:30 ET.

The reason being given for the shutdown?

“Equipment failures.”