What happened
At 0327, the flight was heard southwest of the airport while Cleveland Tower cleared it for a landing on Runway 36-Left. One minute later, the aircraft was observed over the field at an altitude between 200 and 400 feet, traveling in a northeasterly direction. As it crossed the north boundary, the plane disappeared from view into what appeared to be low cloud formations. Tower subsequently advised the crew that they were cleared to use Runway 36-Left, Runway 36-Right, or Runway 31 at their discretion.
The aircraft was next seen re-approaching from the northeast in a right turn with landing lights activated. A descent was established during the latter part of this turn, continuing in a northwesterly direction toward an undeveloped area north of the airport. Although the aircraft appeared to be on a normal landing approach, it was heading toward terrain outside the airport boundaries. At approximately 30 feet altitude, the plane banked slightly left before striking trees and high-tension lines parallel to the north boundary. It then veered sharply right and dived into the ground, coming to rest about 550 feet beyond the initial point of impact.
Findings
The investigation determined that the accident resulted from the pilot's error in establishing an approach toward an area not cleared for landing. This mistake occurred because the pilot confused the end markers of Runway 23 with those of Runway 31. A contributing factor was the pilot's failure to abandon the landing attempt when confronted with weather conditions below the prescribed minimums for Cleveland Airport.