Regional Express (Rex) has denied claims there was ‘uninvestigated corrosion’ on one of their planes.

The Daily Telegraph published an article claiming the plane was carrying passengers from Kangaroo Island to Adelaide when a video was taken showing rust on the propeller shaft.

But Rex Deputy Chairman John Sharp says the story is completely false, telling John Stanley the plane wasn’t carrying passengers at the time and the so-called ‘corrosion’ has simply been wiped off the aircraft.

“An engine will, over a period of time, get some muck on it. You will from time to time get a solvent and you will wipe it off, and that is exactly what has happened.

“It is bright and shiny, it’s all been cleaned. It has not been uninvestigated. “

He also denied claims engineers aren’t reporting defects to the airline company because they’re fearful of retribution.

“We actively encourage our employees to report things that concern them… in the last two years, the number of these reports made by engineers has increased by more than 10 per cent.

“If we had a culture of fear and of retaliation, of punishment and disciplining people for making these reports, that wouldn’t be the case.

“The union is doing what the union does from time to time with all the other airlines. It uses the safety tool as a weapon in an industrial dispute.”

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