What happened
On November 24, 2025, a Piper Aircraft Inc. PA-46-701TP (registration N646U) was involved in an accident in Provo, Utah. The flight, operated by AS AVIATION LLC, was a personal flight intended to return the aircraft to Van Nuys, California.
During the takeoff from Provo, the pilot configured the autopilot to hold the runway heading and set a climb airspeed of approximately 125 knots. After the landing gear was retracted, the pilot engaged the autopilot at roughly 500 to 600 feet above ground level. Shortly after, the aircraft stopped climbing and began to descend. The pilot subsequently disconnected both the autothrottle and the autopilot.
As the aircraft reached approximately 7,000 feet MSL, the pilot experienced extreme control forces. The control yoke became very difficult to move, and the pitch trim indicator showed a full nose-up position. The pilot attempted to move the trim wheel manually, and even requested assistance from a passenger to move the wheel toward neutral, but neither action relieved the nose-up tendency. To maintain level flight or descend, the pilot had to apply extreme forward pressure on the yoke using both hands.
After notifying air traffic control of the intent to return to the departure airport, the pilot struggled to maintain the approach. The pilot reported difficulty slowing the aircraft and was unable to reach the appropriate circuit breaker while maintaining the necessary forward pressure. During the final approach, the pilot used a knee to help keep the nose down. Upon touchdown, the pilot briefly relaxed his grip, causing the aircraft to pitch up and become airborne again before descending back to the runway. Following the landing, the aircraft erupted in flames.
The accident resulted in one serious injury to the pilot and three minor injuries to the passengers. There were no fatalities.
The investigation
Data from the Garmin G3000 avionics suite and GFC 700 digital autopilot provided a detailed timeline of the flight. The data showed that during the initial climb, the airspeed exceeded the Maximum Flap Extended Speed (Vfe) of 147 knots. This triggered the HALO autothrottle's protection features, causing multiple state changes as the system attempted to prevent an overspeed.
Flight data indicated that the pitch trim moved significantly in the nose-up direction during the climb. The aircraft reached a maximum altitude of approximately 3,280 feet AGL. At 15:28:01, the pilot selected the landing gear down while the airspeed was 204 knots, which was well above the landing-gear-extended limit of 170 knots. Following the gear extension, the pitch trim moved in the nose-up direction again.
During the final descent, the autopilot disconnected at 83 feet AGL, immediately triggering a pitch oscillation with a peak-to-peak amplitude of approximately 12.9 degrees. The aircraft's nose-gear weight-on-wheels parameter remained in the airborne state until 15:36:41.