Investigators in Norway are on their way to examine a Wideroe Bombardier Dash 8-100 aircraft which suffered a main landing-gear collapse during a domestic service to Sandnessjoen.

No-one on board the aircraft - just three passengers and four crew members - was injured in the accident, which occurred at 06:00, but the airport, in the north of Norway, has been closed.

Wideroe states that the aircraft "hit the runway so hard that parts of the undercarriage collapsed" during landing. The damage primarily involves the right-hand main gear.

The aircraft, identified as serial number 372, registered LN-WIF, is a 16-year old example which Flightglobal's ACAS database lists as being owned by the carrier.

It has achieved more than 32,000 flight hours in over 66,000 cycles.

Wideroe says the aircraft was travelling from Bodo to Sandnessjoen. Norwegian airports operator Avinor says its fire and rescue teams were "quickly on site", and that the air accidents investigation board has been notified.

SAS Group, Wideroe's parent company, replaced the fleet of Bombardier Q400 turboprops operated by Wideroe and Scandinavian Airlines after experiencing a spate of gear-collapse incidents three years ago - although it subsequently selected Bombardier's NextGen version of the Q400 to renew the fleets at Wideroe and then-affiliate Air Baltic.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news