new serious incident for an ATR aircraft

The incident happened this Sunday at Wellington airport in New Zealand. There were no injuries, but last August, the same model of aircraft crashed resulting in the death of all 61 passengers.

“I saw a bright red light. Then the glow got bigger and turned out to be flames, some smoke and as we were landing someone shouted fire!” The testimony of the passenger on this Air New Zealand flight aboard an ATR 72 aircraft is chilling.

The plane’s left engine actually caught fire six seconds before landing in Wellington. The plane was evacuated to the runway without any injuries. Almost everything was filmed live and broadcast on YouTube.

The cause of the incident has not been communicated, an investigation has obviously been opened.

Oil pressure drop

Passengers later reported that the crew chief told them that there had been a drop in engine oil pressure, that the oil was leaking and that it had come into contact with hot parts of the engine and ignited.

For the turboprop aircraft manufacturer, a joint venture owned by the Italian Alenia Aermacchi (Finmeccanica Group) and the French EADS, headquartered in Toulouse, this incident is the latest in a long list, as it has just celebrated the delivery of its 1,700th aircraft.

On August 9, an ATR 72 from Voepass crashed in the Sao Paulo region of Brazil, killing 61 people, including all passengers and crew members on board. The investigation is still ongoing, but several hypotheses have been put forward: technical failure, human error or freezing.

In January 2023, an ATR 72 of Yeti Airlines, coming from Kathmandu in Nepal, crashed near Pokhara airport where it was due to land. At least 67 people were killed.

In November 2022, an ATR 42 from Tanzanian airline Precision Air crashed into Lake Victoria just before landing in Bukoba, killing 19 people.