Bombardier Q-400s found airworthy
The European Aviation Safety Agency reported Wednesday that Bombardier Inc.’s Q-400 turboprops are airworthy after ruling that a series of recent accidents weren’t caused by design flaws.
The European air authorities conducted the review after Scandinavian airline SAS AB permanently grounded its fleet of 27 Bombardier-built Q-400s a day after one of its planes made an emergency landing in Copenhagen on Oct. 27 with a landing gear malfunction – the third such incident in seven weeks.
No one was seriously injured, but the Scandinavian airline said the accidents had damaged confidence in the planes.
According to the EASA, the most recent incident “was not due to a design error” and said the airworthiness of the aircraft is maintained.
•Moody’s Investors Service on Wednesday maintained a high credit rating for Fidelity Investments, but also suggested the closely held company is overdue for governance reform and needs to answer questions about leadership succession.
The credit rating agency said in an investor report that it has “growing concerns” about the control that 77-year-old Edward C. “Ned” Johnson III holds over the nation’s largest mutual fund company as chairman and chief executive, as well as the control that members of his company-founding family hold.
The Johnsons hold 49 percent of the Boston-based firm’s voting stock, with key managers controlling the rest, and with the company’s governing board consisting solely of current or former company executives and Johnson family members.
While other family controlled companies have recently adopted more open governance practices similar to those of publicly listed companies, Fidelity’s parent company, an entity called FMR LLC, “has chosen not to do so,” Moody’s noted.
•Microsoft Corp. said Wednesday it has started construction on a 550,000-square-foot data center just south of O’Hare International Airport in Chicago.
The $500 million data center, developed by St. Louis-based Ascent Corp. and The Koman Group, will house tens of thousands of servers providing information and Web-based applications to Internet users and support the growth of the company’s Internet service offerings such as Windows Live, Hotmail, and MSN Video.
About 75 employees will work at the center, which is to open in April. Construction began in September.