Accident Summary
The airplane collided with an airport boundary fence during an aborted landing. The aircraft came to rest in a field after departing the runway.
Circumstances of the Landing and Aborted Landing
The pilot performed a normal approach following the visual approach slope indicator (VASI) with the landing gear down and full flaps. The airplane touched down just past the runway numbers and began to decelerate. The pilot selected reverse thrust on both engines. As he added power to decelerate, the airplane suddenly veered to the left and departed the runway because the right engine did not go into reverse thrust. The pilot deselected reverse thrust and realigned the airplane with the runway. Approaching the end of the runway at high speed, he elected to attempt a takeoff. The airplane went off the end of the runway onto smooth grass. The pilot rotated the airplane, but it collided with an airport boundary fence and came to rest in a field.
Post-Accident Examination
In a post-accident examination, when the power levers were placed in the full reverse position, the left fuel control measured 4°, while the right measured 0°. The left pitch control measured 10°, while the right measured 0°; the controls should have read 0°. A controls engineer determined that during landing, there would be a 10° propeller pitch control (PPC) angle mismatch, which would be about 2.5° of BETA angle. With matched levers, there would be asymmetric reverse thrust with the left engine lower in torque. This would result in the airplane turning towards the left if both propellers had gone into reverse pitch.
Probable Cause
A misrigging of the engine controls that resulted in an asymmetric reverse thrust condition.