I once had an engineer install a hose incorrectly on a Cessna 404, the hose that connected the turbocharger to the inlet manifold. When it popped off, I lost the engine due to the mixture suddenly going far too rich for the suddenly reduced manifold pressure.
This was in a fully-loaded aircraft off a short strip on a very hot afternoon, when I was very lucky to have the hose pop off during extended climb, not too late to abort or right after lift-off.
When I got back to base, the guilty party told me that all I would have had to do was to lean the mixture to get the engine back, that there was no real problem there if I had simply known what to do. That's the closest I have ever come to slugging an engineer, with his blithe notion that I was going to to sit there and twiddle with a few controls to see what might work, in a machine with a highly negative rate of climb due to gear and flaps down and a windmilling prop on a failed engine.
So there you are when the elevator cable on your Twotter goes "Twang!" but you can sort it out no probs by playing with the elevator trim ... on short final or on take-off? Better yet, simply turn around and ask the SLF to run this way or that. These things I would like to see done in practice!
The Twin Otter uses a control lock for the elevator that locks the pilot's controls, just a rod that runs between the control column and the bottom of the instrument panel. That means that the elevator cables are still exposed to stress from winds and jet blast whether the controls are locked or not. The elevator itself is protected from banging around, as are the ailerons and the rudder, but none of the control cables is protected.