COPENHAGEN, Oct 10, 2007 (AFP) - A Scandanavian Airlines System (SAS) Dash 8-400 plane en route for Poland was forced to turn back mid-way Wednesday due to a fault, only weeks after the airline grounded its entire fleet of the aircraft.

'The pilot noticed a warning light in the cockpit indicating that the landing gear doors had not closed properly. He closed it again but it opened once more,' said Mikkel Loendahl, an SAS spokesman.

MADRID, Oct 4, 2007 (AFP) - Spanair chief Gonzalo Pascual resigned Thursday to launch a takeover bid for Spain's second largest airline by the travel group Marsans, which he also heads, Spanair announced Thursday.

Scandinavian travel group SAS announced in June that it planned to sell Spanair, and Pascual announced he intended to buy it for Marsans.

'Now the race begins' for control of the company, a source close to Marsans said. No other bidders have so far come forward.

VILNIUS, Oct 4, 2007 (AFP) - The Scandinavian airline SAS has offered compensation to passengers whose plane crash-landed in Lithuania in September due to a landing gear fault, a report said here Thursday.

SAS has written to all 48 passengers, offering them 2,000 euros (2,800 dollars) and two free tickets, the daily Lietuvos Rytas said.

Remigijus Kirstukas, a Lithuanian mayor who was on the ill-fated aircraft, told the newspaper that SAS had also agreed to cover medical expenses related to the accident.

STOCKHOLM, Oct 3, 2007 (AFP) - SAS airline said Wednesday it would seek compensation from plane manufacturer Bombardier for costs and lost revenue after faulty landing gear on its Dash 8-400 planes forced SAS to ground its Dash fleet for three weeks.

SAS would seek '500 million Swedish kronor (77 million dollars, 54 million euros) in compensation' in negotiations to be undertaken with the Canadian company, SAS spokesman Bertil Ternert told AFP.

OSLO, Oct 2, 2007 (AFP) - The Norwegian branch of Scandinavian airline SAS was fined four million kronor (520,000 euros, 707,000 dollars ) on Tuesday for industrial espionage on low-cost competitor Norwegian, an Oslo court said.

Norwegian welcomed the outcome of the case and said it could demand damages and interest worth several hundreds of millions of kronor.

COPENHAGEN, Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) - The landing gear on 25 of 27 of SAS airline's Dash 8-400 planes are corroded, an inspection agency said Friday following two recent accidents in which the landing gear collapsed.

'We examined all of the planes and 25 of them had corroded bolts in the landing gear,' Helge Torp, technical director the Scandinavian airline inspection agency Skandinavisk Tilsynskontor (ST), told Danish newspaper Ingenioeren.

According to ST, the amount of corrosion varied from plane to plane, and on several of the aircraft the landing gear was rusted.

STOCKHOLM, Sept 19, 2007 (AFP) - A prosecutor in Stockholm, where SAS is headquartered, is probing the Scandinavian carrier after two accidents involving its Q400 fleet, an official said Wednesday.

'SAS was notified of the launch of the investigation on Friday,' spokesman Hans Ollongren told AFP.

'I think the investigation was opened the same day,' he said, adding that the aim of the probe was to establish if SAS had endangered people's lives.

COPENHAGEN, Sept 14, 2007 (AFP) - Authorities in Scandinavian countries said Friday they decided to ground Dash 8-400 planes owned by SAS airline until further notice after two incidents occurred within a one-week span.

'We have met with our Scandinavian colleagues to maintain this flight ban, and we will hold new discussions on Monday,' Danish Civil Aviation Agency Spokesman Thorbjoern Ancker said, according to Ritzau agency.

VILNIUS, Sept 12, 2007 (AFP) - A Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) Dash 8-400 plane crash-landed in Lithuania on Wednesday after its landing gear failed in the second incident in four days, forcing Canadian maker Bombardier to advise airlines to temporarily ground some 60 such aircraft.

SAS immediately ordered all of its 27 Dash 8-400 turboprops grounded. The planes represent 15 to 20 percent of the airline's fleet, and are used for short-haul flights in Scandinavia and northern and central Europe.

COPENHAGEN, Sept 12, 2007 (AFP) - A Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) Dash 8-400 turboprop crashed upon landing in Lithuania Wednesday, with all 48 passengers and four crew safely evacuating from the plane, the company said.

The accident -- the second upon landing of an SAS Dash 8-400 in four days -- prompted the company to immediately ground all 33 of the aircraft it owns.

COPENHAGEN, Sept 11, 2007 (AFP) - Scandinavian Airlines System said Tuesday it would inspect all of its 33 Dash 8-400 (Q400) turboprop airplanes after an accident in Denmark at the weekend when a plane's landing gear collapsed.

'We still think it was an isolated incident, and we think this plane is reliable. But for us security comes first. That is why we are going to inspect all the planes,' SAS-Danmark spokesman Jens Langergaard told AFP.

The 33 planes are made by Canadian airplane manufacturer Bombardier.

BERLIN, Aug 25, 2007 (AFP) - Lufthansa increasing its 30 percent stake in British airline BMI is 'an option,' Wolfgang Mayrhuber, CEO of the German carrier, said in an interview pre-published on Saturday.

'We have decided to keep quiet on the details, but BMI is an option,' Mayrhuber said in an interview with German business weekly Wirtschaftswoche to be published on Monday.

Press reports have for months said that Lufthansa was very interested in buying the 20-percent stake in BMI currently held by Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS).