Another emergency on Croatia Airlines

A week after its emergency in Barcelona, a Croatia Airlines aircraft has had another serious emergency. Yesterday the new Dash 8 Q400 was forced to return to Zagreb’s Pleso Airport a few minutes following its departure after flames were seen from the aircrafts engine however the management of Croatia Airlines is denying the allegations from Croatian media. The incident sparks a major debate within Croatia concerning the purchase of the Dash 8’s and their reliability since the aircraft type has been plagued by incidents and mechanical failures across Europe for years.

In Croatia Airlines, the management states that there was no fire and that there was no emergency landing. The management claims that the pilot noticed on his instruments that the temperature of the fuel was higher than normal and decided to return the aircraft back to Zagreb a few minutes after departure. The aircraft which was transporting passengers from Zagreb to Zadar had 33 passengers onboard and the management is persistent in highlighting that none of the passengers were in danger. Croatia Airlines currently has 2 Dash Bombardiers which arrived this year and a further 2 will arrive next year in order to replace the aging ATR42’s. One of Croatia’s Dash 8’s has already experienced mechanical problems this year. Croatian media have criticised the national carrier for purchasing the “unreliable” aircraft referencing the fact that Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) withdrew the aircraft model from its fleet after the much publicised incident in Copenhagen in 2007.