What happened
The pilot and his passengers departed for an evening dinner flight to a town located approximately 48 miles away. The pilot initially selected a cruise altitude of 2,500 feet msl and requested VFR advisories en route, though he did not request MSAW monitoring. Approach control provided the pilot with a heading to the destination.
Approximately three minutes after receiving the heading, the pilot was notified that the destination airport was at his 12 o'clock position and 8 miles away, an instruction he acknowledged. About one minute later, the aircraft's radio and radar contact were lost, and the local center received an ELT signal.
Radar data indicated that during the final six minutes of the flight, the airplane descended from 1,800 feet msl to 1,300 feet. There was no altitude information available for the last five radar hits. The aircraft eventually collided with a power line on a ridgeline at 1,300 feet msl, approximately 6 miles from the destination airport.
Prior to the dark night flight, the pilot had received an abbreviated weather briefing. Witnesses at the scene reported that stratus clouds were obscuring the ridgeline at the time of the accident.