A Broken Hill councillor who was on a home-bound flight from Sydney when one of the plane’s engines stopped mid-air said it was “terrifying”, and a “big concern” following another incident with a Regional Express flight this week.
Darriea Turley said she was heading back to Broken Hill on Saturday morning when passengers heard “an unusual sound” and the right engine stopped mid-air.
The Broken Hill City councillor said when she looked out the window, her “heart skipped a beat”, and that the experience was “very scary” for all on board.
“We heard a strange sound and a bit of a flutter, and then the engine seemed to stop,” Cr Turley said.
“For those that were on the right-hand side, we could see that the blades were just going slowly around.
“It took some time for the pilots to announce what was happening, and when I say ‘some time’, it was over 25 to 30 minutes.”
Flight was ‘terrifying’, councillor says
Cr Turley said she was “surprised” that the plane was not diverted but instead kept going to Broken Hill with one engine for what she estimated to be “about an hour and a half”.
She said the pilots told passengers “they’d had some practices in a simulator and were pretty confident they could get us there safely”.
“If you came to me at seat 11A, I would say ‘get the plane down now’, but I’m not a pilot,” she said.
“We had to then go lower to the ground to limp across and it seemed like we were flying forever with only one engine.
“That was terrifying at every stage because if there was any noise you think, ‘What’s happening to the other engine?’
“If you are a nervous flyer, this would have been your worst nightmare.”
The plane later landed at Broken Hill Airport.
In a statement, Rex said the flight crew had followed standard operating procedures and shut down the engine after a warning light came on in the cockpit.
“Rex Airlines flight ZL6854 from Sydney to Broken Hill this morning received a flight deck indication associated with the aircraft’s right engine while en route to Broken Hill,” the airline said.
“The crew followed standard company operating procedures and carried out a precautionary engine shutdown.
“The aircraft landed normally in Broken Hill at 9:56am.”
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said it was aware of the incident.
“An in-flight engine shutdown involving a Rex Saab 340 on a flight from Sydney to Broken Hill has been reported to the ATSB, and the ATSB is gathering further information as to the incident’s circumstances to inform an investigation decision,” a spokesperson said.
Darriea Turley was on board the flight from Sydney to Broken Hill. (Supplied: Local Government Association)
A spokesperson for the Broken Hill Council, which is responsible for the local airport, told the ABC that the Rex plane had radioed through to report that an engine had failed.
The spokesperson said emergency services were called and the plane later landed without further incident.
Regional Express entered voluntary administration in July last year, after it failed in an expansion to competitive capital city routes.
The incident comes just days after passengers on an early morning flight between Adelaide and Broken Hill had to be evacuated before take-off following an issue with a Rex aircraft’s left engine.
A passenger who had boarded the Wednesday morning flight told the ABC that the cabin quickly began to fill with smoke, as well as the “smell of flumes”, when the aircraft’s left engine caught fire.
A Rex flight on the Adelaide Airport runway after the left engine caught fire. (Supplied: Emma Lovis-Hotchin)
Second incident in a week ‘a big concern to me’
Cr Turley, who posted a video of Saturday morning’s incident on social media, wrote that “people from our rural and remote communities deserve safe, reliable air travel — not luck and prayers — to get home”.
“The reality is for Rex, this is the second incident in one week, and that is a big concern to me,” she later said.
“We need a regional air service and it needs to be a priority to keep it going but it can’t be at a risk to our rural communities.
“How do we make sure while Rex is in administration that they’ve got the resources to keep our communities safe?”
Cr Turley estimated there were about 18 to 20 passengers on board the plane, and said she was “very grateful” to the pilots that “we got here safely”.
“We all clapped when we landed and I think someone gave a cheer,” she said.
“A lot of the people who were on the plane will be traumatised for some time. I’m sure the staff would have been as well.
“I got to the terminal and gave my husband a hug.”