A SkyBahamas Saab 340 B airplane en route to Freeport, Grand Bahama yesterday morning had to divert back to New Providence after the pilots heard something strange and had to shut off one of the engines, SkyBahamas CEO Randy Butler confirmed yesterday.

"The pilots heard some kind of noise that was not familiar, it should not have been heard," Butler said. "It was pretty loud. So they did a precautionary shutdown of the engine and turned around and landed in Nassau safely."

There were five passengers and three crewmembers on board the 33-seater. Butler said there were no injuries and no damage to the airplane. Butler said a team is looking into the cause of the noise to find out what happened. The flight departed New Providence at 11:30 a.m. Tim Aylen, a passenger on the flight, said everything appeared normal at first.

"We had a normal take off, normal everything," he said. "We were just going over the Berry Islands and we heard this loud bang. The plane shuddered. Then we all just kind of looked out the window and saw the left propeller just stopped.

"Immediately the stewardess called into the pilot. The passengers were praying and there was a little shouting and that short of thing going on. The stewardess reassured us and the pilot came on and just said we were going to return to Nassau."

He added, "I guess I'm pretty adventurous and everything but when you're flying along and hear a sound you don't normally hear, I guess that was a shock.

"I did honestly think we were going down in the waters in the Berries because I thought both engines were gone. But I looked out the right window and saw that it (the propeller) was going. I did know that the plane could fly on one. We were in good hands really with the pilot. That was reassuring."

In a video Aylen took, several passengers were seen holding hands and praying.

"Lord, help us," said one passenger.

The video also showed that the left propeller was turned off and a beige substance appeared to be leaking from that engine.
Aylen said the flight back to New Providence was fine. He said fire engines were on the runway waiting for them.

"We landed pretty good. We got out and could see all the oil all over the engine," Aylen said.

SkyBahamas took four of the passengers to Freeport on a different plane shortly after the ordeal, Butler said.

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