Propeller failure involving Piper PA-32, Bankstown Airport, New South Wales, on 21 February 2019

What happened

On 21 February 2019, a Piper PA-32 6XT departed Orange, New South Wales (NSW) to conduct a private flight to Bankstown, NSW with two crew on board. During approach, at approximately 900 ft above mean sea level at Warwick Farm, the crew detected a vibration. The crew declared a PAN-PAN^[1] to Bankstown tower requesting priority landing. The tower cleared the crew for a straight in approach to runway 11L. The aircraft landed without incident and taxied to parking.

The post-flight inspection revealed the cause of the vibration was due to a 20 cm section missing from one of the propellers. Following the incident, the engineer suspects the likely cause of the propeller section breaking off was due to a stone chip, which developed into a crack as a result of engine operation, which caused stress on the propeller, which subsequently resulted in the propeller failing during flight.

Figure 1: Missing propeller section

Source: Pilot in Command

Safety message

It is important that pilots remain aware that despite conducting comprehensive pre-flight checks, unanticipated failures can still occur during flight. The crew, in this instance, took all possible precautions by following non-normal procedures, providing clear communications to ATC and landing the aircraft as soon as possible.

About this report

Decisions regarding whether to conduct an investigation, and the scope of an investigation, are based on many factors, including the level of safety benefit likely to be obtained from an investigation. For this occurrence, no investigation has been conducted and the ATSB did not verify the accuracy of the information. A brief description has been written using information supplied in the notification and any follow-up information in order to produce a short summary report, and allow for greater industry awareness of potential safety issues and possible safety actions.

__________

1. PAN-PAN - The radiotelephony message PAN-PAN is the international standard urgency signal that the crew on board an aircraft uses to declare that they have a situation that is urgent but, for the time being at least, does not pose an immediate danger to anyone's life or the aircraft itself.