On the 17th March 2017, a REX Regional Express Saab 340B (REG. VH-NRX) was performing a scheduled flight from Albury Airport to Sydney Airport. As the aircraft was descending towards its destination, the right hand propeller separated from the engine mounting. The flight crew we able to maintain control of the aircraft and performed a safe landing approximately 25 minutes later. Following the incident, REX has announced the grounding of five additional Saab 340B aircraft of the same production series, to allow for an inspection of the engine mounting and propeller gear boxes.

The Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation had launched an investigation to examine the engine types used on the new Airbus A320neo (New engine option) fitted on a number of Indian airline fleets. Following a number a number of incidents involving the Pratt and Whitney engines (P&W), both IndiGo Airlines and GoAir have been instructed by the DGCA to perform boroscopic inspections on the engines of over 20 aircraft. These inspections had initially been required after the engines had completed 1,500 flight hours; however the DGCA has asked this be performed at 1,000 hours instead. The DGCA noted that its concerns stemmed from reports that the presence of metal chips had been found within the engine oil.

In early March 2017, the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) awarded Kenya a Category 1 status, as part of its International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) scheme. Prior to this change, all Kenya-based airlines had been prohibited from flying directly to the United States and could not establish code shares with US-Based carriers. The IASA programme was launched by the FAA in 1992. The IASA Programme assists in determining whether a country’s civil aviation regulator adheres to internationally recognised standards in regulatory oversight. Additionally, the assessment examines critical aspects of a nation’s aviation industry including legislation, training, licensing, certification, airworthiness and maintenance.