Narrative:

#1 (left) engine was shutdown in cruise flight. [We] received a #1 engine oil press warning. Looked at the oil pressure to verify and gauge showed dashes (---). Noted that the engine seemed to already be shutting itself down as they were executing the memory items; captain noted that the torque was decreasing rapidly even prior to power lever movement during shutdown procedure. We ran qrc memory items for engine failure/fire/ shutdown; followed by QRH. Engine was shutdown in approximately 1 minute or less from the initial indication an emergency was declared. Post shutdown; the #1 fadec fail warning and powerplant message appeared on the ed. Briefed flight attendants and passengers. Everyone was calm throughout. [I] was almost over one of our station airport which I was familiar with. Weather was VFR with wind 210 at 6 KTS. QRH performance landing distance calculated at 2;700 ft at 58;000 pounds. There were weather cells to the north and south as shown in the attachment which led the crew to choose this airport. I did not feel they had time to text dispatch. They were able to compute performance themselves which I feel was a good decision given these circumstances. Made a flaps 15 landing and brought the airplane to a stop on the runway. Approximately half the runway was used. Airplane was not evacuated and there was no indication of fire. Busses were used to move the people from the aircraft to the terminal. No injuries. No upset passengers. No comments from passengers. Aircraft was subsequently towed to the west ramp of the airport.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Q-400 crew reported the loss of engine oil inflight. As they prepared to shut the engine down it auto shutdown; so an emergency was declared; the QRH was completed; and the flight diverted to a nearby airport.

Narrative: #1 (left) engine was shutdown in cruise flight. [We] received a #1 ENG OIL PRESS WARNING. Looked at the oil pressure to verify and gauge showed dashes (---). Noted that the engine seemed to already be shutting itself down as they were executing the memory items; Captain noted that the torque was decreasing rapidly even prior to power lever movement during shutdown procedure. We ran QRC memory items for ENGINE FAILURE/FIRE/ SHUTDOWN; followed by QRH. Engine was shutdown in approximately 1 minute or less from the initial indication an emergency was declared. Post shutdown; the #1 FADEC FAIL WARNING and POWERPLANT message appeared on the ED. Briefed flight attendants and passengers. Everyone was calm throughout. [I] was almost over one of our station airport which I was familiar with. Weather was VFR with wind 210 at 6 KTS. QRH performance landing distance calculated at 2;700 FT at 58;000 LBS. There were weather cells to the north and south as shown in the attachment which led the crew to choose this airport. I did not feel they had time to text dispatch. They were able to compute performance themselves which I feel was a good decision given these circumstances. Made a flaps 15 landing and brought the airplane to a stop on the runway. Approximately half the runway was used. Airplane was NOT evacuated and there was no indication of fire. Busses were used to move the people from the aircraft to the terminal. No injuries. No upset passengers. No comments from passengers. Aircraft was subsequently towed to the west ramp of the airport.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.