What happened
The pilot departed without a prior weather briefing and subsequently contacted flight service for an en route briefing. During the flight, the aircraft encountered stronger headwinds than originally planned and was forced to deviate around snow showers. As a result of these conditions, the pilot arrived at the destination with insufficient fuel to proceed to an alternate airport.
Believing that deteriorating weather conditions made further flight impossible, the pilot attempted to land. However, he was unable to activate the runway lights using either the aircraft's radio or a handheld backup radio. The pilot mistakenly aligned the aircraft with two sets of obstruction lights, believing they represented the approach and departure ends of runway 22. In reality, the far set of lights was located at an obstruction to the left of the runway 22 departure end.
The aircraft touched down at an angle to the runway and struck a snowbank. The impact caused the airplane to roll onto its right wing before coming to rest on its nose. There were no injuries reported in the accident.
The investigation
The FAA investigation into the communication failure revealed that the airplane radio had a loose connection. Additionally, it was determined that the handheld backup radio lacked sufficient power to successfully activate the runway lights.