Pacific Aerospace CORP LTD 750XL accident near Raeford, North Carolina, December 3, 2015

The NTSB's narrative final · quoted from the NTSB record

The commercial pilot of the single-engine turboprop airplane reported that he was preparing to release skydivers when he noticed that the engine torque indication was in the red arc. Specifically, the gauge was indicating a torque of 70 pounds per square inch (psi) when it should have been indicating about 25 psi; the maximum allowed torque indication was 64.5 psi. The skydivers jumped uneventfully. As the pilot was returning to the airport, the torque gauge was indicating 80 psi while the engine was at idle. At that time, the pilot decided to perform a precautionary engine shutdown and land with no engine power. During the landing, the airplane was fast and touched down about halfway down the 3,402-ft-long asphalt runway. The pilot applied heavy braking, but the airplane traveled about 1,000 ft beyond the departure end of the runway before coming to rest upright in a field with a collapsed left main landing gear. Two examinations of the engine did not reveal any preimpact anomalies or evidence of overtorque. A test of the torque-indicating transducer and gauge also did not reveal any anomalies. The examinations did reveal that an automotive-type wiring bundle was used to wire the torque transducer to the airplane's electrical system. Although it is possible that the wiring bundle could have caused an intermittent faulty torque indication, subsequent testing was unable to duplicate the problem. The airplane was manufactured about 10 years before the accident, and the torque meter manufacturer upgraded the wiring connectors about 4 years before the accident.

The complete narrative as the NTSB published it. The NTSB's docket holds the report as a PDF and any photographs, statements and other documents from the investigation.