Loose part in Air NZ plane engine may have caused fire during Wellington Airport landing, engineers’ union says

Preliminary information suggests there was a loose part inside the engine that caught fire on a plane as it landed at Wellington Airport, 11 days ago. The ATR-72 aircraft - Air NZ Flight NZ5366 from Christchurch to Wellington - landed with smoke trailing behind it. Passengers were evacuated and the runway closed for a time as emergency services responded. Talking to RNZ on Wednesday, E tū official Savage said that engineer information received by the union was that the Pratt & Whitney engine involved was brand new and had been installed on the aircraft in Christchurch. “The fault appears to be the actual engine itself, rather than any of the work that was done by the Air NZ engineers,” Savage said, noting necessary checks were carried out. “The information that we had was it appears that a part inside the engine, possibly one of the rotors on the turbine, was loose, that there was a vibration, and that it caused either damage or shearing to one of the oil lines. And then the oil leak is what caused the smoking and the fire in the engine. I have to stress that is just preliminary information that we have, but it does appear that it was the engine that was the problem,” Savage told RNZ. The Transport Accident Investigation Commission is investigating the incident.<br/>