REX rust video is just plane scary
Regional Express John Sharp has spoken out today to insist his airline is safe and to encourage customers to stick with “the last man standing” among airlines servicing the bush.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Safety experts in Wagga amid REX safety concerns
- Engineers call for Regional Express airline to ground fleet
Regional Express John Sharp has spoken out today to insist his airline is safe and to encourage customers to stick with “the last man standing” among airlines servicing the bush.
Mr Sharp spoke out after The Daily Telegraph published a video showing un-investigated corrosion on Rex Saab plane propeller shaft that an engineer had filmed but been too concerned about management repercussions.
The exclusive footage showed the rust on the prop shaft of the Saab plane, registration number VH-RXN, which on Thursday flew from Kangaroo Island to Adelaide.
“That plane was having a B check in our hanger in Adelaide yesterday after 1000 hours flying. I am looking at a photo of that very part and it is bright and shiny, almost new,” he said.
Mr Sharp said the brown marks that had concerned the engineer had been “wiped off with solvent”.
But Stephen Re, technical officer for The Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association, said: “It is great that the part could be cleaned but the concern is that the engineer did not want to report it.
“The part needed to be looked at.”
Mr Sharp denied an engineer had been disciplined over an earlier incident when he spotted corrosion on an engine prop shaft during a routine walk around check of an aircraft. In that instance the corrosion was checked and the engine taken out of service.
He said the engineer was not disciplined. “We would describe it as an appropriate response to a person not following procedures,” he said. “He has suffered no penalty in pay and is still working for us.”
Mr Sharp said the airline actively encouraged employees to report areas of concern. “In the last two years the number of these reports made by engineers has increased by more than 10 per cent.
“If we had a culture of fear and of retaliation, of punishment and disciplining people for making these reports, that wouldn’t be the case.
He said the union was “weaponising safety” as part of a campaign against the airline which was “killing us”.
“We are the last man standing among regional airlines. People need to know that we are safe,” he said.
He said CASA is the “judge and jury” and had inspectors at the airlines Wagga Wagga maintenance depot today. “If they were concerned they would ground us,” he said.
Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson said the video “will be looked at very carefully and closely”.
Two years ago a REX flight from Albury to Sydney was forced to make an emergency landing after a 100kg propeller sheared off and landed just metres from homes in southwest Sydney. A fatigue crack in the shaft was identified as the cause.
A report on the findings of the inspectors is not expected for several days.