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A pair of engine incidents on Rex Saab 340Bs has again put the spotlight on the airline’s ageing fleet.
A flight from Sydney landed in Broken Hill with one functioning engine on Saturday, days after an exhaust fire in Adelaide forced the evacuation of another Rex flight to Broken Hill, making it the second engine malfunction on a Rex aircraft in less than a week.
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VH-KRX, a 33-year-old Saab 340B, was operating flight ZL6854 from Sydney to Broken Hill on Saturday morning when passengers heard “a strange sound” and the right-hand engine stopped.
One passenger, Broken Hill councillor Darriea Turley, said the plane did not divert but continued for about an hour and a half before landing in Broken Hill.
“We had to then go lower to the ground to limp across and it seemed like we were flying forever with only one engine,” she told the ABC.
“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.”
Rex later said the flight crew had seen a cockpit warning light, which prompted them to shut down the engine.
“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 in a statement on Saturday.
“The crew followed standard company operating procedures and carried out a precautionary engine shutdown. The aircraft landed normally in Broken Hill at 9:56am.”
A spokesperson for the ATSB confirmed the safety watchdog 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,” the spokesperson said.
The incident on Saturday came after another engine malfunction last Wednesday aboard flight ZL4818, operated by 29-year-old VH-ZPN, which saw passengers evacuated and the runway at Adelaide Airport shut down for around 20 minutes due to a brief fire in the left-hand engine’s exhaust.
Rex told the ABC that the pilots had shut down the engine and rejected take-off after receiving a “cockpit indication”, after which some unburnt fuel briefly ignited.
The regional airline currently has a fleet of around 57 Saab 340Bs with an average age of over 30 years, which has proven a barrier to a potential sale from administration.
A report this year from Airservices Australia found that the average age of planes operating non-capital routes is around 24 years, nine years older than planes on capital routes.
