'Cool, calm' pilot brought plane with missing propeller into land
Passengers have praised the pilot of the Regional Express plane for his skill under pressure when a propeller sheared off the engine of the plane travelling from Albury to Sydney.
The Saab 340 had just lost the propeller 6000 feet over Sydney's west and was at the mercy of pilot Markham Ross.
From inside the cockpit, captain Ross made a "pan call" but he didn't panic.
Alyce Fisher was on her way from Albury to study but she never imagined Friday's one-hour flight would be so heart stopping.
"I thought it was because a giant bird had hit our plane which obviously it hadn't," she said.
"The pilot's training and his cool and calm approach kept us all safe and kept us in the air."
Pilots Association spokesman Ben Morgan said the captain remained "calm, professional, diligent that's what being a commercial pilot is all about".
The plane was en route to Sydney when the four-blade propeller on the right hand side of the plane fell off as it was about to make its descent.
It plummeted to the ground at high speed somewhere between Narellen and Camden in Sydney's west.
All Rex flights ran today as normal.
Seven News has been told that Regional Express has been contacted by the plane's engine manufacturer, telling the airline to immediately carry out inspections on all its Saab 340s.
If it finds a single default, the manufacturer advises the whole fleet should be grounded.
The propeller is yet to be found making it hard for investigators to figure out what happened.
Residents in Sydney's southwest are being urged to check their properties for the prop.
It is described as being four metres wide and weighs about 300 kilograms.
