Pacific 750XL N216PK

Summary

On 3 December 2015 at about 16:20 local time, a Pacific 750XL registered N216PK, operated by Paraclete Aviation LLC, was involved in an accident near Raeford, North Carolina, United States. One person was on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

3 December 2015 at 16:20

Classification

Accident

Location

Raeford, North Carolina, United States

Nearest airport

P K Airport (5W4)

Coordinates

35.0197, -79.1911

Aircraft

Pacific 750XL

Registration

N216PK

Category

Airplane

Year built

2005

Engines

1

Operator

Paraclete Aviation LLC

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Skydiving

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Raeford → Raeford

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA16LA059

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's failure to obtain the proper touchdown point and speed during a precautionary landing with the engine shut down. Contributing to the accident was an erroneous engine torque indication, which led the pilot to shut the engine down, for reasons that could not be determined during postaccident testing.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

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.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.