De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 (Q400)

Updated: October 2026 – A slim high-wing aircraft glides in, the horizontal stabilizer sits at the very top of the fin, and the propellers whir with six blades: that is very likely a De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400, still known to many spotters as the Bombardier Q400. It is the largest and fastest turboprop in regular scheduled service and still gets confused with the ATR 72 all the time. Here you learn how to identify it with confidence, how it differs from its smaller siblings and where you can still get it in front of your lens in German-speaking countries.

What is the Dash 8-400?

The Dash 8-400 is the stretched version of the Dash 8 family, a regional turboprop that De Havilland Canada developed in the 1980s. The first series, the 100, 200 and 300, offered between a good 30 and a good 50 seats. In the mid-1990s the demand for larger and faster propeller aircraft grew, so the then owner Bombardier designed a much longer version with new engines and reworked wings.

The Series 400 took off for the first time on January 31, 1998 and entered scheduled service in 2000. It is powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW150A engines, each turning a large six-blade propeller. With a maximum cruise speed of about 360 knots, or roughly 667 km/h, it is noticeably faster than other turboprops of its size. The manufacturer therefore advertises performance that comes close to a regional jet, at the operating costs of a propeller aircraft.

In the cabin, passengers sit in a 2+2 layout with a center aisle. Typical configurations have about 70 to 80 seats; the high-capacity variant is certified for up to 90 seats. The launch customer for this 90-seat version in 2018 was India’s SpiceJet.

The manufacturer’s history is tangled. Bombardier ran the program for many years but sold it to Longview Aviation Capital in 2019. Since then it has again carried the traditional name De Havilland Canada, and the “Q400” officially became the “Dash 8-400”. According to the manufacturer, more than 620 aircraft have gone to over 70 owners and operators.

Why “Q”? The noise suppression system

From the mid-1990s, all newly delivered Dash 8s received an active noise and vibration suppression system in the cabin. Microphones and actuators pick up the typical propeller drone and counteract it. Bombardier therefore put a “Q” for “Quiet” in front of the models: Q100, Q200, Q300 and, of course, Q400. For you as a spotter the system changes nothing from the outside, but it explains why the names Q400 and Dash 8-400 are still used side by side today.

Bombardier later also offered the Q400 NextGen, with a redesigned cabin among other things. Externally the NextGen is hard to tell from an older Q400; only the registration plus a database lookup helps here.

The four features that are enough to identify it

With turboprops, many beginners reflexively land on “ATR”. With four observations you are on the safe side with the Dash 8-400.

The combination of a T-tail and gear in the nacelles reliably narrows it down to the Dash 8 family, propellers and length give you the series. In the end the registration confirms the type. How to identify aircraft systematically in general is shown in the guide Aircraft type identification for beginners.

The Dash 8 family compared

All Dash 8s share the basic concept of a high wing, a T-tail and gear in the nacelles. The series differ mainly in length.

Series	ICAO code	Length	Propellers	Status
Dash 8-100	DH8A	approx. 22.3 m	4 blades	classic series, new build until 2005
Dash 8-200	DH8B	approx. 22.3 m	4 blades	classic series, built until 2009
Dash 8-300	DH8C	approx. 25.7 m	4 blades	classic series, built until 2009
Dash 8-400	DH8D	32.8 m	6 blades	production paused since 2021

The -100 and -200 are practically the same length externally and differ mainly in their engines. Between the -300 and -400, on the other hand, there are about seven meters, which you see immediately side by side. For single sightings the propellers help: six blades means Series 400.

Dash 8-400 or ATR 72?

The ATR 72 is the direct competitor and is seen far more often at European airports. Both are twin-engine high-wing aircraft with six-blade propellers on the current versions, and both have four seats per row. The finder helps you tell the two apart.

You will find more about the competition in the profiles of the ATR 72-600 and the ATR 42-600 as well as on the manufacturer page for ATR. There is a difference in the air too: the Dash 8-400 climbs and flies faster than the ATR and has correspondingly shorter block times. For identification at the spot, though, that is only a hint.

Where to find the Dash 8-400

In German-speaking countries the Q400 was a familiar sight for a long time. Austrian Airlines used it for many years, first through its subsidiary Tyrolean, from 2015 under its own operation. By March 2021 Austrian had replaced all its Q400s with Airbus jets. In Germany, Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter (LGW) flew a Q400 fleet first for Air Berlin and later on a wet lease for Eurowings; with LGW’s insolvency in April 2020, this operation ended too.

Today the sources are limited. As of October 2026, the situation looks like this:

• Luxair is currently the most reliable Q400 operator on German routes. The airline flies about ten aircraft with 76 seats and serves Hamburg, Berlin and Munich, among others, and seasonally Sylt and Heringsdorf. Its Embraer E2 fleet is growing in parallel, so which routes are flown with which type can shift.
• Croatia Airlines most recently had only two Q400s left in its fleet and is gradually replacing the fleet with the Airbus A220-300. The airline serves Frankfurt, Munich and Zurich, among others; a Q400 there is now a stroke of luck.
• Widerøe from Norway, with about 18 Dash 8-400s (as of 2025), is one of the big operators in Europe and also flies the smaller Series 100 to 300. If you want to collect the whole family, Norway, for example around Oslo Airport, offers the densest selection.

Outside Europe the Dash 8-400 is much more common, for example in Canada, Africa and Asia. At Ethiopian Airlines or Canada’s Porter Airlines it is a fixture. There are also special versions, such as the firefighting aircraft (Q400MR or Q400AT) or the combi version for passengers and cargo.

Place	Chance of a sighting	Why
Hamburg, Berlin, Munich	medium	Luxair connections to Luxembourg, with the Q400 depending on the rotation
Frankfurt, Zurich	low	Croatia Airlines is switching to the A220
Vienna	low	Austrian has not flown the Q400 since 2021
Norwegian airports	high	Widerøe operates a large Dash 8 fleet

Spotting in Germany: where the Q400 still lands

Because the Dash 8-400 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland mostly flies connections to Luxembourg and Croatia, you end up at the big airports with regional traffic. In Munich the visitors’ hill (Besucherhügel) is the classic starting point, in Hamburg the Affenfelsen and in Berlin the observation deck at BER. In Frankfurt the Zeppelinheim viewing platform offers a view of the approach, in Zurich spectator terrace B.

At large airports, turboprops do not always use the same runway or taxiway as the jets. The deciding factor is the runway direction in use: it determines which direction the aircraft approach from and which spot gives the best picture. How to estimate it in advance is explained in the article Understanding the runway direction in use at an airport.

Whether your vantage point is legally unproblematic is covered in the article Is plane spotting allowed?.

Photo tips specifically for the Dash 8-400

The Q400 is a rewarding but demanding subject. The long fuselage, the tall tail and the large propellers need to be framed properly.

When the light works at your spot, you can work out in advance with the guide Planning the sun position for your photo spot. Which focal length you need for an aircraft that is rather small compared with jets is explained in the article on the right lens for plane spotting.

The 2007 landing gear incidents

No chapter of Q400 history is as well known as autumn 2007. Within a few weeks, three SAS aircraft had problems with the right main gear: in September it collapsed on landings in Aalborg and Vilnius, and in October an aircraft landed in Copenhagen with the right main gear retracted. Nobody was seriously injured. In the first two cases the investigators found corrosion in the thread of a hydraulic cylinder; in the third, an incorrectly fitted seal ring blocked a valve.

SAS grounded its Q400s at first and took them out of service permanently after the third incident at the end of October 2007. The other operators kept flying the type after inspections and parts replacement.

Common mix-ups and how to rule them out

Because the Q400 has become rare in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, many spotters now count it among the rewarding targets beyond everyday A320 traffic. You will find more tips for such types in the article Spotting rare aircraft, and if you are just starting out, begin with Plane spotting for beginners.

Conclusion

The Dash 8-400 is the turboprop for spotters who look closely: a T-tail, gear in the nacelles, six propeller blades and an unusually long fuselage. It has not been built since 2021, Austrian and Eurowings have dropped out in German-speaking countries, and Croatia Airlines is saying goodbye as well. Luxair keeps the Q400 alive on German routes, Widerøe in Norway offers the big selection.