[Peetwo]

REX on a roll with incidents -


Via the Oz today:

Engine fail on another Rex plane

12:00amEMILY RITCHIE

Regional Express has grounded a seventh plane in six days after a flight carrying 23 passengers and three crew made an emergency landing in Dubbo when an engine­ failed.

The aircraft, headed for Sydney, turned back after the pilot was forced to shut down one of its two engines.

It was the second emergency landing by a Rex plane in a week.

Last Friday, a Saab 340 plane lost its right propeller 25km from Sydney airport. The 100kg prop­eller, which sheared off during the flight from Albury to Sydney and travelled 9km, was found in the Georges River National Park and will be inspected by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

Following the propeller incid­ent, Rex grounded five similar planes. Rex said yesterday’s incid­ent — involving the same model plane, but one fitted with different components — was unrelated and denied there were systemic problems with its fleet.

“The two events are independ­ent and, in both cases, they do not point to any systemic root causes nor any lapses in maintenance,” a Rex spokeswoman said. “Rex will fully comply with all directions from CASA and ATSB. In the meantime, we need to avoid knee-jerk reactions that do the public more harm than good.”

She said it was impossible to say yet whether the problem was caused by engine failure or the engine ingesting a foreign object.

The plane involved in yesterday’s incident has also been grounded indefinitely, pending an investigation by Rex engin­eers and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.

MTF...P2