SAS Dash-8-400 after crash-landing in Vilnius airport

Scandinavian Airlines System The Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), commonly known as Scandinavian Airlines, is the Flag carrier, national airline of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It is part of SAS Group and is headquartered in Solna Municipality, Solna, Sweden. Including ...

(SAS), commonly known as Scandinavian Airlines, is the

national airline A flag carrier is a transport company, such as an airline or shipping company, that, being locally registered in a given sovereign state, enjoys preferential rights or privileges accorded by that government for international operations. Histo ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. Owned by the eponymous

SAS Group SAS AB, trading as SAS Group, is a Swedish airline holding company headquartered in Solna Municipality, Sweden. It is the owner of the airlines Scandinavian Airlines, SAS Link, and SAS Connect. As of 2024, SAS Group is owned by a group of s ...

, it operates out of three main hubs,

Copenhagen Airport Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup (, ) is an international airport serving Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, as well as the wider Øresund Region, including Zealand and the southern Sweden, Swedish province of Scania. In 2023 it was the largest ai ...

Stockholm-Arlanda Airport Stockholm Arlanda Airport is the main international airport serving Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. It is located in Sigtuna Municipality, north of Stockholm and nearly southeast of Uppsala. The airport is located within Stockholm County. ...

, and

Oslo Airport, Gardermoen Oslo Airport () , alternatively referred to as Oslo Gardermoen Airport or simply Gardermoen, is an international airport serving Oslo, the capital and most populous city of Norway. The airport is the second largest in Scandinavia and the Nord ...

. It transported 22.9 million passengers to 90 destinations on an average 683 flights daily in 2011. Of the airline's twenty-three major accidents and incidents, four have resulted in the loss of life. The first was the

1948 Northwood mid-air collision The 1948 Northwood mid-air collision took place on 4 July at 15:03 when a Douglas DC-6 of Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) and an Avro York, Avro York C.1 of the Royal Air Force (RAF) mid-air collision, collided in mid-air over Northwood, Lon ...

over

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, with which 39 fatalities made it the deadliest accident in the United Kingdom at the time. In the 1960 Flight 871 to

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

, the aircraft descended too early, resulting in 42 people perishing in the first accident of the

Sud Aviation Caravelle The Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle is a French jet airliner produced by Sud Aviation. It was developed by SNCASE in the early 1950s, and made its maiden flight on May 27, 1955. It included some de Havilland designs and components developed for t ...

. The same cause was responsible nine years later in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, when 15 people were killed in Flight 933. The final and most deadly accident was Flight 686, where 114 people were killed in a runway collision in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

in 2001.

SAS has been subject to three hijackings—none of which have resulted in the loss of lives. Two were successful: Flight 130 in 1972 was captured by the

Croatian National Resistance The Croatian National Resistance (; ), also referred to as Otpor, was an Ustaša organization founded in 1955 in Spain. The HNO ran an armed organisation, Drina, which continued to be active well into the 1970s. The organization operated between ...

, while Flight 347 in 1994 was captured in the ruse of the

Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following several earlier violent incid ...

. Two accidents have been dramatized as part of the television series ''Mayday''. In addition to Flight 686, it featured Flight 751, which crashed without fatalities in a forest in

Gottröra Gottröra is a village in Norrtälje Municipality in the county of Stockholm, Sweden. Several hundred ancient monument An ancient monument can refer to any early or historical manmade structure or architecture. Certain ancient monuments are o ...

after

foreign object damage In aviation and aerospace, the term foreign object damage (FOD) refers to any damage to an aircraft attributed to foreign object debris (also referred to as "FOD"), which is any particle or substance, alien to an aircraft or system which could ...

. Fifteen accidents have resulted in aircraft being

written off A write-off is a reduction of the recognized value of something. In accounting, this is a recognition of the reduced or zero value of an asset. In income tax statements, this is a reduction of taxable income, as a recognition of certain expenses ...

. This includes two of the

Dash 8 landing gear incidents In September 2007, two separate accidents due to similar landing gear failures occurred within three days of each other on Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft operated by Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS). A third accident, again with an SAS air ...

in September 2007, which resulted in a group-wide retirement of the Bombardier Dash 8-Q400.

List

The following is a list of all major accidents involving Scandinavian Airlines. It includes all fatal accidents, all write-offs, all hijackings, and other major incidents. SAS registers its aircraft in one of the three Scandinavian countries. Aircraft with registration starting with LN are registered in Norway, SE in Sweden, and OY in Denmark. Unless otherwise noted, all accidents and incidents had no fatalities and ended with the aircraft being written off. All times are local.

References

{{Portal bar, Aviation, Denmark, Norway, Sweden

Scandinavian Airlines The Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), commonly known as Scandinavian Airlines, is the national airline of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It is part of SAS Group and is headquartered in Solna, Sweden. Including its subsidiaries SAS Link and ...