OS177 - Incident: Austrian DH8D near Salzburg on Sep 24th 2020

An Austrian Airlines de Havilland Dash 8-400, registration OE-LGK performing flight OS-177 from Vienna (Austria) to Stuttgart (Germany) with 21 passengers and 4 crew, was enroute at FL240 about 30nm northeast of Salzburg (Austria) about to cross into German Airspace near Passau (Germany) when the crew initiated an emergency descent to FL140 advising of technical difficulties and turned off the airway on radar vectors on heading 310. After levelling off at FL140 the crew initially expected to continue into Bavaria (Germany) but subsequently, about 10nm west of Passau (Germany) decided to return to Vienna, descended to FL100 and performed a right hand turn for the return. The aircraft landed safely back in Vienna about 65 minutes after departure.

A replacement Embraer ERJ-195 registration OE-LWI reached Stuttgart with a delay of 3 hours.

The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground about 24 hours after landing back in Vienna.

The airline reported the crew experienced problems with the cabin pressure about 30 minutes after departure, declared emergency, descended to FL100 and after levelling off at FL100 cancelled the emergency. The aircraft returned to Vienna. A replacement E195 reached Stuttgart with a delay of 3 hours.