What happened
A non-instrument rated pilot was operating an aircraft under visual flight rules when the aircraft entered fog conditions immediately after becoming airborne. Approximately 30 seconds after entering the fog, the aircraft was observed exiting the cloud layer at a very low altitude. At that time, the aircraft was traveling in the opposite direction of its initial flight path and was in a slight left turn before impacting the ground.
Findings
Personnel arriving at the crash site immediately following the accident reported that the wings and horizontal stabilizer of the aircraft were glazed with ice. Prior to the flight, the pilot had reportedly scraped ice from the propeller and the wings. At 1815, the Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS) recorded a partial obscuration with a ceiling of 200 feet overcast and visibility of 2 miles.