Second scare for Australian airline in a week

A regional Australian airline jet made an emergency landing on Thursday after the pilot was forced to shut down an engine, barely a week after a propeller fell off another plane mid-flight.

The Regional Express (Rex) plane carrying 23 passengers was heading to Sydney when a warning light came on in the cockpit, with the pilot managing to safely return to the town of Dubbo, the carrier said.

"We were about 10 minutes out of Dubbo and all of a sudden there was this big loud noise and a shaking of the aeroplane," passenger Tim Evans said.

"I happened to be in a seat just next to the engine and I saw these flames came out of the engine. Then it did another big bang and a shake of the plane and all of these embers came out of the engine and I looked at the propeller and it was clear the engine had stopped."

It was the same Saab 340 model plane as involved in a near-disaster last Friday when a pilot shut down one of two engines after "abnormal indications" before the propeller sheared off.

Despite this, the flight landed safely in Sydney.

Regional Express is Australia's largest independent regional airline, operating some 1,500 weekly flights to 58 destinations throughout the country.