Twin otter makes emergency landing on one engine
Twin Otter landing 28 March 2015
(CNS) UPDATED 7:15am Monday: A Cayman Airways flight from Little Cayman to Grand Cayman put the airport emergency services on alert Saturday morning when it landed at Owen Roberts International Airport on just one engine. According to the Cayman Islands Air Traffic Controllers Association, the plane was operating a routine service from Little Cayman when the flight crew reported losing one of the two engines enroute to Grand Cayman. “At minutes to 12:00pm ATC issued a full emergency, fire service crews were promptly ready for the stricken aircraft, hospital staff and police were on standby and the perimeter road surrounding the airport was closed to all road traffic, as is standard procedure for all full emergencies in Grand Cayman,” the CIATCA reported on their Facebook page.
“At 12:15 the aircraft landed safely, fire service crews entered the runway and visually inspected the aircraft, and shortly afterwards the airport was re-opened to commercial and private traffic once again.”
The Cayman Airports Authority confirmed that it was alerted just before noon and the plane landed safely at 12:14pm.
The CIATCA commended “the outstanding piloting by the flight crew of Cayman Express flight 4722 today, as well as the “outstanding work (of) the flight crew for their professionalism and expertise in the handling of the aircraft. Great work to the fire service, hospital and police for their prompt support and efforts in assisting with this latest incident.”
Cayman Airways said the pilot received a false engine fire indication during the flight and although there was no visible evidence of a fire, the crew followed standard operating procedures which included discharge of the engine fire suppression system to the applicable engine and shutting the engine down.
“The Captain also requested that emergency crews be on standby at the airport for landing which is a standard procedure for this type of situation,” An airline spokesperson stated. “The aircraft landed at the airport at approximately 12:13 pm without incident, and was cleared by the Cayman Islands Fire Service before being released to the gate. The Cayman Airways maintenance team then confirmed that the indication was false, identified the cause of the false indication, and repaired the aircraft.”
CAL said the aircraft was returned to service within an hour and only minimal delays were anticipated for Cayman Airways Express flights for the day. Cayman Airways President and CEO, Fabian Whorms, reiterated the airline’s “steadfast commitment to the safety of its passengers, crew and aircraft,” and thanked the public for its understanding and support.
Category: Local News
And this is why you should not fly ever in a plane or helicopter with one engine. When you have two, there is always a ride home to fix a broken one! Unless you like the extra thrill of the feeling we may not get home
I was a passenger on the Otter that truly had an engine fire (aircraft was on Brac for many days whilst they replaced the engine) – crew reactions and actions were first class! This one is a spurious fault with a sensor as opposed to anything else. Chris Witt is a very experienced Captain and I am sure his actions were flawless – one of the things that Simulator rides are so important for – Emergency situations – and I am sure to meet CAA and FAA ratings, CAL do insist their cockpit crews are fully current on the Sim!
I was on that plane…….and for me it was scary! The words in the paper and the size of the runway is irrelevant.
Actually, the twin otter only has two engines for redundancy. This plane has such lifting capacity it could easily take off, fly and land all on one engine.
At times like this I really miss the ‘LOL’ button 🙂
Congratulations to Capt. Chris Whitt and First Officer Chaz Clifford. A perfect landing on one engine !
Some of these media releases sound as if they were written in Russia in the days of the Cold War or North Korea today -everyone involved is always “outstanding” “brilliant” “best in the world”. More measured language would lead to greater confidence in the maturity of the issuing organization.
Your assessment of the lack of verbal diversity in press releases is understandable. However, there is no place for negativity here seeing as two pilots performed an exemplary emergency landing. Now let me ask, had the result been different and better wording used would you be satisfied?
Instead of an unnecessary diatribe, you should focus on the issue at hand.
Have a “grate” day.
The PT6A engines used in the Twin Otter are amongst the most reliable (some would say the most reliable) turbo-prop engines ever made. The mean time between shut downs on the engine is reckoned to be 220,000 hours. This isn’t the first time CAL Express has experienced an engine problem in the past year and I find that very worrying because it puts their serviceability stats way below expected industry norms.
Actually the MTBF figure is around 350,000 hours but that just reinforces the point that this was not a minor incident.
Thank God we have the best pilots in the world here at Cayman Airways! God bless our national airline and the Caymanian pilots that keep our skies a safer place!
Really? They have it simple here. 2 runways are massive for an otter and the other one is not very challenging either. Try looking at the pilots that do Otters in Alaska, the arctic, Northern Canada, Antarctica or the bush pilots of Australia and Africa.
I personally took an otter to Barra Beach in Scotland where the schedule is governed by the tide. (google it). Think about the guys that have the float versions and land on the water, the ski versions that land on ice runways. They have it easy here.
I Googled It like you suggested and got a 1990 Stephen King movie about a clown! Not quite sure I see the relevance? Huh?
You don’t know how to use google or spelled incorrectly. I found Barra Beach immediately.
The plane landed at 12:14 or 12:15 ?
In the real world it landed at 12:14pm, in Cayman time, it will land sometime next week…if we’re lucky…