MarkXS

Oh please. There's nothing inherently unsafe about props, unless you back into a spinning one. Fan inside the housing of a UA "jet" engine = prop outside the housing of a UA Express turboprop engine in terms of how it's driven and how it drives the plane. Q400s are way more comfortable than CR-anythings, even though both from Bombardier, and can't even compare to the awful CR2s still around, never mind the EMB120 Brasilias UA EX used in places like the PNW.

Colgan had a training, pilot rest, pilot certification issue. A tragic one, with Continental Colors on it as it killed 49 souls. But Colgan is dead, gone, and fired.

Alaska Air Group's Horizon Air subsidiary (now flying branded as Alaska Horizon), Frontier's Lynx (now shut down by Frontier owner-for-now Republic), Air Canada Jazz, and dozens of other Q400 operators have no problem with these planes. Yes, landing gear, SAS, years ago, SAS decided to ground them the way Mayor Koch grounded all the Grumman Buses. But nobody else has.

I'll take a nice roomy-for-regional Q400 flown by a competent carrier anyday on an up-to-500-mile hop, certainly on a 100-250, compared to an ancient beat up 737-500 or 737-300, any CR2, any Continental JungleJet/AAmerican RJ EMB145/135, or any ATR. Would I prefer a nice shiny roomy clean glowy-LED-lit Embraer E-Jet E170/175/190 - hell yeah. I'd also prefer a 777, or an A346 with the nice Lufty downstairs bathroom suites and lounge. But those aren't mission-appropriate.