What happened
During a night VOR approach conducted in strong, gusty wind conditions, the aircraft impacted trees and subsequently struck an ILS antenna. The aircraft landed on even, grassy terrain short of the runway.
At the time of the accident, the airplane's QFE altimeter was indicating an altitude approximately 76 feet higher than the actual height above airport elevation. This discrepancy was based on the altimeter setting received at 0030 hours. Consequently, the aircraft was flying 76 feet lower than the primary altimeters indicated.
Findings
The investigation determined that because the flightcrew was aware of rapidly falling atmospheric pressure, they should have requested a current altimeter setting from the approach controller when it was not provided during initial radio contact.
While the crew did not utilize the most recent QNH setting available (29.40 inches of Hg.) in the standby altimeter, this specific error did not alter the accident sequence, as the crew was using a correct but outdated QFE setting (29.23 inches Hg.) in their primary altimeters during the approach.
Additionally, it was noted that if the first officer had maintained instrument monitoring until reaching the minimum descent altitude (MDA) and delayed searching for the airport until after reaching that altitude, the crew might have identified the altitude deviation below the MDA and alerted the captain.