C208B captain reported rejecting the takeoff shortly after liftoff when he experienced a loss of pow...

Narrative:

I briefed my departure as we taxied out- to include a short field takeoff. I applied 2000 ft-lbs (company takeoff limit); saw gauges in the green; and released the brakes. It seemed to take a little longer than normal to rotate; but we had nine passengers so it didn't seem too abnormal. About 8-10 feet off the ground; I sensed a lack of power and felt slow. I glanced at the engine gauges and noticed right away that torque was at 1400 ft-lbs and decreasing. My initial thought was that one of us had unintentionally knocked the power lever back; so I attempted to add more power; and only watched the power continue to decrease. I said to the first officer; 'I just lost my power; I'm putting it back down.' I pulled power back to idle; landed on the remaining runway; put it in beta; applied brakes; and stopped before the end of the runway. Immediately after touching back down; the cockpit filled with the smell of jet fuel. I made the decision since we still had power and were not experiencing a fire to taxi back to parking and shut the engine down. I called the mechanic and he drove over to assess the problem. After hours of trouble-shooting; it was found that an o-ring in the fuel manifold was punctured on installation. We were the first crew to fly the aircraft after the fuel nozzles had been replaced; and that's when it occurred.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C208B Captain reported rejecting the takeoff shortly after liftoff when he experienced a loss of power related to a leaking o-ring in the fuel manifold.

Narrative: I briefed my departure as we taxied out- to include a short field takeoff. I applied 2000 ft-lbs (company takeoff limit); saw gauges in the green; and released the brakes. It seemed to take a little longer than normal to rotate; but we had nine passengers so it didn't seem too abnormal. About 8-10 feet off the ground; I sensed a lack of power and felt slow. I glanced at the engine gauges and noticed right away that torque was at 1400 ft-lbs and decreasing. My initial thought was that one of us had unintentionally knocked the power lever back; so I attempted to add more power; and only watched the power continue to decrease. I said to the FO; 'I just lost my power; I'm putting it back down.' I pulled power back to idle; landed on the remaining runway; put it in beta; applied brakes; and stopped before the end of the runway. Immediately after touching back down; the cockpit filled with the smell of jet fuel. I made the decision since we still had power and were not experiencing a fire to taxi back to parking and shut the engine down. I called the mechanic and he drove over to assess the problem. After hours of trouble-shooting; it was found that an o-ring in the fuel manifold was punctured on installation. We were the first crew to fly the aircraft after the fuel nozzles had been replaced; and that's when it occurred.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1499393
Time
Date	201711
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Caravan 208B
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 135
Flight Phase	Takeoff
Flight Plan	VFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Turbine Engine
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 200 Flight Crew Total 1400 Flight Crew Type 1000
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

C208B captain reported rejecting the takeoff shortly after liftoff when he experienced a loss of power related to a leaking o-ring in the fuel manifold.