And this from the Canberra Sunday Times (won't vouch for accuracy!):
Airport emergency
Catherine Naylor
Sunday, 23 July 2006
A MELBOURNE-bound Qantas flight with 19 people on board had to make an emergency landing at Canberra Airport yesterday when one of its engines failed.
The pilot of flight QF 2811 had to abort the plane's journey to Melbourne and return to Canberra after an indicator light warned him of a problem with one of the two engines on the Dash 8 QantasLink aircraft. It was carrying 16 passengers and three crew.
Airservices Australia said the situation had been a local emergency, requiring the airport's emergency services to prepare for a bad landing.
The flight left the terminal as scheduled at 4pm, but as the plane was lifting into the air, the pilot became aware of the engine trouble.
He immediately alerted air-traffic control in Canberra, which organised for the flight's urgent return to the airport.
Airport emergency-services crews were put on notice and trailed the plane down the runway as it landed 20 minutes later.
An off-duty pilot was watching the plane from an airport viewing area as it landed. He told the Canberra Sunday Times he could see that the propeller on one of its two engines was not working.
The passengers remained on board the aircraft for five minutes after landing. They were transferred on to the next Qantas flight to Melbourne, QF 819, which left at 5.30pm and landed an hour later. The Dash 8 was grounded so inspections on the engine could be carried out. Last night it was still sitting on the runway at Canberra Airport.
A Qantas spokeswoman confirmed the problem had "something to do with the number one engine" but could not say what exactly was wrong because inspections were continuing. "Our captains are trained to land an aircraft with one engine."
She could not say how often engines failed on flights.
A spokesman for Airservices Australia said air-traffic control had informed emergency services of the returning flight. "They were in the trucks and ready to operate. They would have been on site within two to three minutes [if the landing had not gone as planned]."
He said pilots trained every six to 12 months in landing a plane after engine failure.
QantasLink bought seven new Dash 8 Q400 planes earlier this year, at a cost of $200 million. Two of the aircraft are due to start operating on the Canberra-Sydney route in August.
The plane involved in yesterday's emergency was an older-style Dash 8.