Scandinavian Airlines - Incidents and Accidents

Incidents and Accidents

• On 4 July 1948, a DC-6B, SE-BDA collided with a British military plane at Northwood, north of London, England. All 32 on board were killed. See Northwood mid-air collision.
• On 19 January 1960, a Caravelle III, OY-KRB crashed near Ankara, Turkey. All 42 on board were killed. See Scandinavian Airlines Flight 871
• On 13 January 1969, SAS flight 933 DC-8-62, LN-MOO, hit the water while approaching Los Angeles. 15 of the 45 on board were killed.
• On 19 April 1970 a DC-8-62, SE-DBE, experienced an uncontained engine fire during takeoff from Rome. Aircraft burned out, but all on board managed to evacuate safely.
• On 30 January 1973, a DC-9-21, LN-RLM SAS flight 370, Oslo-Alta via Tromsø, was cleared for takeoff from runway 24. The takeoff run was normal and the DC-9 rotated at V_R (125 knots). At that moment the stall warning system activated. Although the speed had increased to 140 knots (259 km/h), the pilot aborted the takeoff. The remaining 1100 m was not enough to bring the aircraft to a halt, the reversers did not deploy completely and the aircraft overran the runway and onto the ice covered Oslofjord. All passengers and crew evacuated before the plane broke through the ice and sank 20 minutes later. The decision to abort the take-off in spite of the high speed was because the flight crew had received outdated (by several hours) runway data, giving much better braking coefficients than the actual ones.
• On 28 February 1984, SAS Flight 901, DC-10, LN-RKB departed Oslo (GEN) for a flight to New York City JFK. The aircraft touched down 1440 m past the runway 4R threshold. The crew steered the plane to the right side off the runway to avoid approach lights. The DC-10 ended up in shallow water. All on board the plane were uninjured.
• On 23 February 1987, SAS flight 737, an McDonnell Douglas DC-9-41, SE-DAT landed hard on runway 9 and a go-around was initiated. After the second landing, the tail of the aircraft was found to have struck the runway, causing severe damage.
• On 27 December 1991, SAS flight 751, an MD-81, OY-KHO "Dana Viking" crash landed at Gottröra (Sweden). During the initial climb, both engines ingested ice particles having broken loose from the wings, which had not been properly de-iced before departure. The ice damaged the compressor blades causing compressor stall. The stall caused repeated engine surges that destroyed both engines, leaving the aircraft with no propulsion. The aircraft landed in a field and broke in three parts. No fire broke out and all aboard the plane survived. Captain Stefan G. Rasmussen was later decorated by the Danish Queen for his performance. This incident was mentioned on The History Channel's True Action Adventures episode "Against All Odds" which first aired in the United States on 2 April 1997.
• The Linate Airport disaster, involving the highest number of SAS passenger fatalities, occurred on 8 October 2001 in Milan, Italy, when an MD-87, SAS flight SK686, SE-DMA collided with a small Cessna jet during take-off. All 104 passengers and 6 crew aboard SK686 were killed, along with four people on the Cessna and another four people on the ground. Italian authorities established that the cause of the accident was a misunderstanding between air traffic controllers and the Cessna jet, and that the SAS crew had no role in causing the accident. Another factor was the inoperative ground movement radar at the time of the accident.
• In the autumn of 2007, three separate incidents occurred, involving landing gear problems with the de Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 (Q400) airplane. These incidents (SAS flight SK1209, SAS flight SK2748 and SAS flight SK2867), while not resulting in hull loss or fatalities, were widely publicized in the media and eventually led to SAS permanently retiring its Dash 8 Q400 fleet.
• On 23 August 2010, a female flight attendant sustained serious spinal injuries when the aircraft, a Boeing 737-600 encountered severe turbulence during approach to London Heathrow Airport. No injuries among the passengers were reported.