Flight Crew Commercial
Situational Awareness; Human-Machine Interface; Time Pressure; Workload
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical
General None Reported / Taken
Aircraft
Flight operated normally enroute. Upon approach while scanning the instruments the Captain noticed that our engine oil temperature was unusually high; rising steadily into the yellow arc. We discussed our options and that if the temperature reached the red arc we would be forced to shut the #1 engine down. As we came abeam the airport on vectors we agreed that the temperature was very close to the red arc and stayed steady; which ruled out a gauge issue for us. At this point the Captain made the decision to tell ATC we needed to land immediately and would not be able to risk extra delayed vectors in the air as we felt an engine shutdown was becoming imminent. I fully agreed with his decision to do so based on both of our experiences in this aircraft. We declared an emergency and were given priority to land and immediate vectors for the approach. Because this issue would only become worse with time we did not feel it would be appropriate to trouble shoot the problem and felt the safest course of action was to get the plane on the ground as soon as possible. I ran the appropriate checklists before landing and continued to monitor the gauge in case an engine shutdown was needed as we landed the aircraft. The temperature gauge continued to stay in the upper yellow arc on approach but upon touchdown rose into the red arc. We safely exited the runway and shut down the #1 engine. After ground emergency vehicles checked the aircraft and we could tell it had safely shut down and the engine was secured we notified them that we no longer needed any services and taxied safely to our gate while the ground crews followed us.
A SF340 engine developed high oil temperature during approach so an emergency was declared; a short approach requested while the oil remained below the red arc and a normal landing followed after which the engine was shutdown.