I saw this news yesterday. If you're an Alaska Airlines stock holder you better bail NOW - if you haven't already. Alaska has dozens of these airplanes - and they are used often on the hop to Seattle and other locations around the northwest.

Whoa! Don't get carried away.

First. There is a tremendous investment in the planes and the training and spare parts and maintenance personnel. Decisions to abandon a plane should not be made lightly and particularly should not be made on such insufficient evidence as it athand. Merely because there may be a high number of incidents involving landing gears does not mean there is a defect. It can be a matter of insufficient training, decaying airspeed on approach, almost anything. The plane is used for short hops: steep descents and relatively high speed approaches to short runways. If anything goes wrong, its the undercarriage that is going to be involved.

Second: Accounting rules force insurance compensation on hull, engines and avionics to be treated as income so shareholders should not be running scared just yet.

On the bright side, Horizon may be able to expand its fleet for rock-bottom prices!