Qlink S/E diversion to Weipa.

[slice]

The article doesn't say but assume it's a Q400.

Qantas plane in emergency landing

Friday, June 20, 2008

© The Cairns Post



BREAKING NEWS: A QANTAS plane bound for Cairns with an almost full load of passengers has made an emergency landing in Weipa after one engine stopped mid flight.

The right-side engine on the 72-seat turbo-prop stopped 10 minutes after take off from Horn Island in the Torres Strait.

A passenger who was sitting next to the engine told The Cairns Post the engine accelerated rapidly for about a minute before the pilot performed an emergency shutdown.

The plan was diverted to Weipa while more than 60 passengers and crew endured a nervous 20-minute single engine dash to safety.

“All the passengers, on the surface at least, appeared calm,” the witness said.

“On the outside you were calm but on the inside I was definitely thinking about the different possible outcomes.”

On reaching Weipa the plane circled the airport while emergency crews positioned themselves.

It is believed the front landing gear was damaged on landing.

The airport was closed after passengers safely left the plane which remains stuck halfway down on the runway.

Qantas is being sought for comment.

[hoss58]

Yet another piece of badly written crap journalism by someone who wouldn't know the pointy end an aircraft from the blunt end.


Fly safe and play hard.

Regards to all

Hoss58

[IAW]

Well at least the plan was diverted.

[insertnamehere]

i want to know how the passenger came to be seated next to the engine? Did the engine have a boarding pass?

[300Series]

I was enroute from a community airstrip to another outstation in the NT and was monitoring 123.4 and heard the crew give their PAN call. Flight crew remained calm on the radio and all relevant info was given by the crew and sought by centre. Not sure about the damage from the Single Engine landing.

[RAD_ALT_ALIVE]

Ha! A journo with no technical knowledge, but a sharp sense of humour; refer para 4 "...endured a nervous 20-minute single engine dash to safety..."

Single Engine Dash...

Get it?

[neville_nobody]

That's Gold

[training wheels]

If they were only 10 minutes out of Horn Island, wouldn't it be better to turn back rather than fly 20 minutes to Weipa? BTW, the Qantas booking engine has the flight time between Horn Island and Weipa as 45 minutes, and I presume that's on 2 engines.

[slice]

For larger turboprops Horn Island is fairly ****ty strip - prevailing south easterlies produce a choppy x-wind and there is some terrain to consider if a go-around is required but mostly I think it would be down to the lack of available emergency facilities. Certainly medical facilities would be very limited as that is all on Thursday Island. Also if the aircraft became disabled on the runway that would complicate engineering recovery. I would say generally, unless the immediate safety of the aircraft (fire, control problems etc.) is in jeopardy taking the aircraft to Weipa with its better infrastructure would be a better course of action.

[Binoculars]

It's been 27 years since I left Weipa so the memory is hazy, but I'd be surprised if a Q400 took anything like 45 minutes from Horn Island. Would have thought 30 was closer to the mark, and availability of emergency services would be the crucial consideration I imagine. Don't know what they are these days either.

So why am I even bothering to post?

[Moniker]

I'd go with the better engineering recovery theory, as there isn't that much by way of infrastructure at WP.

[smartalec888]

45min flight time from HID to WEI on the Qantas flight search engine is measured on a Q300, so it would be significantly less flight time on the Q400.

[megle2]

Better toilet facilities at Horn.
Outside rpt arrivals the Weipa ones are locked up!
Or used to be.

Maybe the Agent was called and raced out to unlock.
Could of been a nasty situation.

[Capt.Grumpy]

Outside rpt arrivals the Weipa ones are locked up!
Or used to be.

Yep, still are,was there at 11am today and had to have a leak behind a tree

[fire wall]

Single engine operation in any twin engined aircraft you land at the nearest suitable airport. Assuming the report is somewhat correct and the event happened some 10 minutes out of Horn then Bamaga/ Horn Island and finally Weipa are the nearest adequate airports. Next in the decision process comes wx evaluation. Engineering concerns for a professional pilot are secondary to the safety concerns of those sitting behind the flt deck door. Anyone who trumpets otherwise doesn't know what they are talking about.

[Noeyedear]

Safety, Comfort, Schedule, Economy!

Obviously safety has to be the first consideration but para 3.2 of CAO 20.6 does seem to give the PIC some discretion to make a sensible decision.

Or have I been out of the local scene too long and has this particluar order been removed?

Cheers

[ACMS]

I can't remember the exact date but 2 to 3 months back a Q400 had a prop overspeed and diverted into ROK in the early evening. Naturally it was well handled by the crew. And I don't recall anything in the paper.?

The regular overnight aircraft ( Q400 ) was due in at ROK, it and it's crew were used to fly the pax on to BNE. Only an hours delay for the Pax, but an overnight for the 2 tech crew in ROK.

[smartalec888]

Lets face it, the only reason why it ended up in the newspaper was because the person who took the photo is an editor for the Torres News; so I'd presume that he has connections with Cairns Post.

Oh and I love it how he says in the article that there were 70odd people onboard, when there are pax number restrictions for the aircraft out of HID, I believe its 60something. Q400 has 72seats.

[smartalec888]

Also with previous incident, the pax weren't delayed as long as WEI pax were... Maybe the general public need to understand that an aircraft can't just be pulled out of thin air.