What happened
During an IFR cross-country flight to the pilot's home base, the aircraft was cleared for an instrument approach to its planned destination, which was an uncontrolled airport. During the descent, the aircraft moved below the altitude where radar coverage was available, resulting in a loss of radar contact.
After the flight plan remained unclosed, a search operation was launched. Approximately 12 hours later, the aircraft was located in a field situated about nine miles from the destination airport.
At the time of the accident, environmental conditions consisted of dark night with fog and broken clouds at 600 feet. The weather briefing had previously forecast that structural icing conditions were present.