Flight Details
After completing the revenue-generating portion of a trip, the company president contacted his company's operations and instructed his secretary to send everyone home because it was a holiday. He stated that he would return the aircraft to its home base himself.
The pilot departed under visual flight rules (VFR) and filed an air filing, then flew an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan to the final approach fix of the closest airport with an instrument approach. After reaching that fix, the pilot cancelled the IFR flight plan and proceeded toward the home airport under VFR.
Weather and Airport Conditions
At the time, fog and low ceilings were present in the area. The home airport was equipped with runway lights but did not have strobe lights on either end of the runway. The airport was located in a valley.
Incident Timeline
Later in the night, an aircraft was observed east of the airport. It had already passed the airport and was in a turn when it was last observed. An ALNOT (Alert Notice) was issued during the night for the missing aircraft.
The aircraft was discovered the next day approximately half a mile west and north of the airport, on the southwest side of a mountain.