Bombardier expressed “regrets” about a March 13, 2007, accident involving a Q400 turboprop at Japan’s Kochi Airport after the Japanese Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission (JARAIC) in late May found that a missing bolt caused the airplane’s nose landing gear door to jam, forcing a gear-up landing. None of the 60 passengers and crew aboard the ANA/Air Central flight sustained injuries in the accident.
The JARAIC’s final report concludes that Bombardier maintenance crew failed to install the bolt in question–located on the landing-gear door operating linkage–during repair work in the summer of 2005, days after the airplane rolled off the assembly line. Workers had accidentally damaged the landing-gear doors during testing on June 16, 2005, and replaced some of the components four days later.