diff --git a/Tests/images/p_16.png b/Tests/images/p_16.png
index e35886412..458f7138e 100644
Binary files a/Tests/images/p_16.png and b/Tests/images/p_16.png differ
diff --git a/Tests/test_file_tga.py b/Tests/test_file_tga.py
index ff6dab00d..15c7bbdb8 100644
--- a/Tests/test_file_tga.py
+++ b/Tests/test_file_tga.py
@@ -72,12 +72,13 @@ def test_palette_depth_8(tmp_path: Path) -> None:
 
 def test_palette_depth_16(tmp_path: Path) -> None:
     with Image.open("Tests/images/p_16.tga") as im:
-        assert_image_equal_tofile(im.convert("RGB"), "Tests/images/p_16.png")
+        assert im.palette.mode == "RGBA"
+        assert_image_equal_tofile(im.convert("RGBA"), "Tests/images/p_16.png")
 
         out = str(tmp_path / "temp.png")
         im.save(out)
         with Image.open(out) as reloaded:
-            assert_image_equal_tofile(reloaded.convert("RGB"), "Tests/images/p_16.png")
+            assert_image_equal_tofile(reloaded.convert("RGBA"), "Tests/images/p_16.png")
 
 
 def test_id_field() -> None:
diff --git a/src/PIL/TgaImagePlugin.py b/src/PIL/TgaImagePlugin.py
index 9bc483fc5..d158fe492 100644
--- a/src/PIL/TgaImagePlugin.py
+++ b/src/PIL/TgaImagePlugin.py
@@ -117,9 +117,11 @@ class TgaImageFile(ImageFile.ImageFile):
             # read palette
             start, size, mapdepth = i16(s, 3), i16(s, 5), s[7]
             if mapdepth == 16:
-                self.palette = ImagePalette.raw(
-                    "BGRA;15", b"\0" * 2 * start + self.fp.read(2 * size)
-                )
+                colormap = self.fp.read(2 * size)
+                palette_data = bytearray(b"\0" * 2 * start)
+                for a, b in zip(colormap[::2], colormap[1::2]):
+                    palette_data += bytearray((a, b ^ 128))
+                self.palette = ImagePalette.raw("BGRA;15", bytes(palette_data))
                 self.palette.mode = "RGBA"
             elif mapdepth == 24:
                 self.palette = ImagePalette.raw(