Melburnian1
Enthusiast
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2013
- Posts
- 24,673
ZL768, the 1045 hours ABX - SYD on Friday 17 March had a nasty incident near Camden, NSW at about 1200 'high noon' when a propeller sheared off. Fortunately nobody on the flight or on the ground was injured:
Propeller takes flight, forcing emergency landing | The Border Mail
The 'Aviation Herald' report has some good pictures:
http://avherald.com/h?article=4a651f6e&opt=0
Perhaps St Patrick was looking after them given Albury's Catholic heritage.
Note that there were only 16 passengers aboard (and three crew.) These planes seat 33 so occupancy was just under 50 per cent.
The aircraft was SAAB340B (of course, as that is the sole type Rex operates) VH-NRX. This aircraft entered service with a USA carrier called Business Express on 25 March 1992, then transferred to the USA's PenAir with first flight with it on 5 January 2004 and finally had its initial Regional Express flight on 1 October 2004. It has not long had its 25th birthday according to www.airfleets.net (which must be calculated from the date of signing of acceptance rather than its first flight), so as with almost all of Rex's aircraft it is 'old' in RPT aviation terms (although I assume that does not mean it is 'unsafe': the latter depends on the standard of maintenance, but advice from aviators on that general observation would be good.)
Not great publicity for Regional Express given on some non-subsidised routes such as ABX- SYD it competes with QantasLink and sometimes Virgin Australia Regional Airlines, and occasionally with smaller carriers such as NTL - SYD. Rex also has some government contracted (that is, subsidised) routes in far north and western Queensland as well as Western Australian routes (and not forgetting the rustbucket state called South Australia and the more enterprising state of Tasmania) so no doubt many bureaucrats nationwide will await the usual initial ATSB summary and much later the full report.
Out of interest, how much would a propeller on this model of plane weigh?
Have there been any other incidents of propellers shearing off on turboprops used for RPT ('regular public transport') in Australia in the last 20 years? None quickly come to mind.
It will be interesting to see if this serious incident (albeit completed with a safe landing) leads to questions from authorities as to the age of Rex's fleet versus the maintenance. About 12 months ago I started a separate thread discussing whether or not Rex would replace (in time) its SAAB340Bs. This would be a major expense for an airline that makes fairly small profits at best.
One of our respected AFF aviators sometimes patronises Regional Express from ABX so it will be fascinating to read what if any perspective such AFF members have, bearing in mind that overall, aviation is very safe.
Doubtless it will be a while before VH-NRX operates another flight. At its age, would it be scrapped? QF's Nancy Bird Walton, a younger, far larger and many times more expensive aircraft was returned to service after the QF32 incident:
https://qf32.aero/photos-qf32-repair-and-return/
Propeller takes flight, forcing emergency landing | The Border Mail
The 'Aviation Herald' report has some good pictures:
http://avherald.com/h?article=4a651f6e&opt=0
Perhaps St Patrick was looking after them given Albury's Catholic heritage.
Note that there were only 16 passengers aboard (and three crew.) These planes seat 33 so occupancy was just under 50 per cent.
The aircraft was SAAB340B (of course, as that is the sole type Rex operates) VH-NRX. This aircraft entered service with a USA carrier called Business Express on 25 March 1992, then transferred to the USA's PenAir with first flight with it on 5 January 2004 and finally had its initial Regional Express flight on 1 October 2004. It has not long had its 25th birthday according to www.airfleets.net (which must be calculated from the date of signing of acceptance rather than its first flight), so as with almost all of Rex's aircraft it is 'old' in RPT aviation terms (although I assume that does not mean it is 'unsafe': the latter depends on the standard of maintenance, but advice from aviators on that general observation would be good.)
Not great publicity for Regional Express given on some non-subsidised routes such as ABX- SYD it competes with QantasLink and sometimes Virgin Australia Regional Airlines, and occasionally with smaller carriers such as NTL - SYD. Rex also has some government contracted (that is, subsidised) routes in far north and western Queensland as well as Western Australian routes (and not forgetting the rustbucket state called South Australia and the more enterprising state of Tasmania) so no doubt many bureaucrats nationwide will await the usual initial ATSB summary and much later the full report.
Out of interest, how much would a propeller on this model of plane weigh?
Have there been any other incidents of propellers shearing off on turboprops used for RPT ('regular public transport') in Australia in the last 20 years? None quickly come to mind.
It will be interesting to see if this serious incident (albeit completed with a safe landing) leads to questions from authorities as to the age of Rex's fleet versus the maintenance. About 12 months ago I started a separate thread discussing whether or not Rex would replace (in time) its SAAB340Bs. This would be a major expense for an airline that makes fairly small profits at best.
One of our respected AFF aviators sometimes patronises Regional Express from ABX so it will be fascinating to read what if any perspective such AFF members have, bearing in mind that overall, aviation is very safe.
Doubtless it will be a while before VH-NRX operates another flight. At its age, would it be scrapped? QF's Nancy Bird Walton, a younger, far larger and many times more expensive aircraft was returned to service after the QF32 incident:
https://qf32.aero/photos-qf32-repair-and-return/
Last edited:
