What happened
The aircraft's landing gear collapsed after the plane went off the right side of Runway 23 during takeoff. Reportedly, the aircraft drifted to the right of centerline on a fairly constant arc until contacting a snow berm at a taxiway intersection.
An investigation revealed that the takeoff was being conducted at night with a partially obscured windshield. Visibility was one mile with fog and falling snow, and the wind was from 150 degrees at 11 knots. The runway was covered with about 1/4 inch of snow. The copilot's duties required him to scan 'inside' the cockpit, while he 'fine tuned' the power settings and checked engine instruments during the takeoff roll.
The investigation
No pre-accident part failure or malfunction of the aircraft was found during the investigation.