Propeller falls off Rex plane

[love_the_life]

Not sure if this has already been posted (and if so Mods please delete)

Passenger plane's propeller shears off in mid-flight, forcing emergency landing at Sydney

 

[Andyzx]

This is truly scary as a (ex) regular flyer of Rex and been a Pax on a couple of "mechanical" issues 1 pre take off 1 in the air - not as bad as this though. Good to hear the SAAB can fly and land on one engine though

Passenger plane's propeller shears off in mid-flight, forcing emergency landing at Sydney

 

[Flying Fox]

Great job by the flight crew. Hopefully they will find the propeller soon.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Not a good look:shock:

 

[gaz0303]

I can see the QFlink response "we might not get there on time, but we get there in one piece".

 

[Quickstatus]

Hmmm.......Daughter flying Rex tomorrow from WGA-SYD.

Good to hear the SAAB can fly and land on one engine though

All multiengine aircraft can fly and land on one engine. and beyond a certain speed they can continue take off on one engine too.

 

[pauly7]

I wonder if they will post a reward for the missing propeller

 

[moa999]

I wonder if they will post a reward for the missing propeller

From the flight track
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/VHNRX/history/20170316/2345Z/YMAY/YSSY/tracklog

I'd say it happened at 11.38 which puts the aircraft over the Kanangra-Boyd National Park, NE of Wombeyan Caves

 

[Boris spatsky]

Hard to tell but from the speed and altitude profile i would say 11.49.

 

[moa999]

That's more interesting then - over Mortdale if I put coords from 1149 into Google

Dropping from 17 to 8 in the 7min after 1138 is normal then?

 

[Sprucegoose]

Not a good look:shock:

Indeed. Reminds me of when I used to fly extensively in Africa. Although you can only do so much with gaffer tape

 

[Major]

Some close ups from AV Herald

Incident: REX SF34 near Sydney on Mar 17th 2017, propeller detached in flight

 

[Melburnian1]

Hard to tell but from the speed and altitude profile i would say 11.49.

If so, it begs the question, why hasn't it been found yesterday?

I asked in the Regional Express delays and cancellations thread but no one has answered - how many kilograms would a propeller on a SAAB340B weigh?

 

[Orca]

Dropping from 17 to 8 in the 7min after 1138 is normal then?

That's considered a pretty normal rate of descent (approx. 1200ft per min) so nothing unusual there.

 

[jb747]

I don't know what you guys are seeing that makes you pick any particular point in the flight. It's an interesting failure, but I expect it's much better for it to have been the entire prop, rather than a blade. As engine failures go, it's pretty 'clean'.

The turbo prop guys tend to use the props/engines not only for forward power, but also to provide drag when they want to slow.

Probably all you ever wanted to know here: http://www.smartcockpit.com/docs/Saab_340B-Powerplant.pdf

Anyway, won't stop me getting on to a Rex flight on Monday afternoon.

 

[Quickstatus]

Daughter flew WGA-SYD today. No issues there

Does the "bird catcher" in the SAAB engine really work?

 

[Dr Bob]

My only fear of flying is propeller failure or more specifically siting adjacent to the propeller in a turbo prop. Last year I had two pre flight engine issues with Rex both requiring replacement aircraft so I'm through with Rex. They are cheaper but less reliable & bloody noisy.

 

[jb747]

My only fear of flying is propeller failure or more specifically siting adjacent to the propeller in a turbo prop. Last year I had two pre flight engine issues with Rex both requiring replacement aircraft so I'm through with Rex.

They had issues and they replaced the aircraft. Which seems to me to be a much better outcome than 'had issues, went anyway'. Of course, you'd probably never know in that case....

They are cheaper but less reliable & bloody noisy.

I must try to measure the noise levels. I fly with them a lot, and it seems that the Dash 8s are actually noisier.

 

[Quickstatus]

I too will avoid sitting next to a propellor though in case it comes off and for noise reasons I have no evidence that this is more unsafe than other seats on a turboprop. Nor any noisier than any other seat on the airplane. Certainly the incidence of propellor/ blade separation from engine is extremely rare.

Is it quieter in front of a prop?, abeam or behind?

 

[jb747]

I too will avoid sitting next to a propellor though in case it comes off and for noise reasons I have no evidence that this is more unsafe than other seats on a turboprop. Nor any noisier than any other seat on the airplane. Certainly the incidence of propellor/ blade separation from engine is extremely rare.

I think this falls into about the same category as unconfined failures with a turbofan engine. Very rare, but not nice when they do happen. Again something that will come out in the report, but it will be interesting to learn what the engine did, when suddenly unloaded.

Is it quieter in front of a prop?, abeam or behind?

My guess is that it would be quieter in front, but that's something we'd need to measure.