A PELICAN Airlines plane that had been in storage for nearly a decade was forced to turn around minutes out of Newcastle Airport after an engine failed only days after it returned to service.
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The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has released a report on the December 14 flight from Newcastle to Dubbo that ended with airport emergency services on standby but no injuries to two crew and six passengers on the stricken plane.
The regular service left Newcastle Airport at 7.30am but after reaching cruising altitude a gauge on the right engine indicated a temperature problem.
After attempts to rectify the problem failed the plane’s crew notified Newcastle Airport and requested clearance to return. They shut down the right engine after the captain advised the airport controller the plane had a light load and there would be “no issues operating on one engine”.
“The captain briefed the passengers through the aircraft’s public address (PA) system about the precautionary engine shut down and instructed them to familiarise themselves with the passenger safety card,” the ATSB report said.
During an investigation into the engine failure the ATSB was told the aircraft had been in storage in Australia from 2007 to March 2016.
Between March and early December, 2016 the aircraft underwent “major maintenance” at an aircraft maintenance facility, including the right engine which was serviced at an engine overhaul facility and had been “preserved during its time of inactivity”.
“The aircraft was released to service 11 days (about 26 flight hours) prior to the incident occurring,” the ATSB found.
The investigation found the engine’s fuel control unit was at fault. A bearing had failed and “many small fragments were found to be interfering” with the fuel control unit’s normal operation.
The captain told the ATSB the incident “did not appear like an emergency”. Passengers were not questioned.
