Accident Details
An airline transport pilot was departing a remote lodge airstrip in a twin-engine turboprop airplane on a ferry flight to a maintenance facility. The airstrip was approximately 1,000 feet long and 40 feet wide. The airplane had previously sustained substantial damage to the nose wheel assembly during an earlier flight to the same airstrip, and repairs had been made to the airframe.
The pilot had flown in and out of the airstrip on numerous occasions but not in the accident airplane type.
Pre-Takeoff Actions
The lodge owner reported that the pilot started both engines and taxied the length of the airstrip, stopping momentarily several times. The pilot ran the engines for about 20 minutes before beginning a takeoff to the south.
Takeoff and Initial Climb
The airplane appeared to accelerate and remain on the centerline of the airstrip but did not lift off until the very end of the runway. The lodge owner did not notice any unusual sounds or appearance from the engines.
After liftoff, the wheels of the airplane struck and broke off the tops of trees and shrubs that were about 6 to 7 feet above the ground. The airplane immediately veered to the right and went out of the lodge owner's sight, though he continued to hear the airplane hitting trees until final impact.
Crash and Aircraft Damage
The airplane crashed in a shallow lake, coming to rest about 300 feet from shore in about 5 feet of water. The entire cockpit area forward of the wings was torn off the airframe. The validity of any postaccident cockpit and instrument findings was unreliable due to extensive damage. Similarly, structural damage to the airframe precluded determining the wing flap settings during takeoff.
Engine Examination
Performance calculations indicated that the airplane's takeoff distance would have been about 950 feet, although the lodge owner said that in his experience, the accident airplane was capable of lifting off about halfway down the airstrip without difficulty.
The circumstances of the takeoff indicated that the left engine had been producing sufficient power to chop through several trees during the crash. Testing and inspection of the right engine were inconclusive; although it was run on a test stand at reduced power, full power could not be attained due to ingestion of foreign material during the test run.