What happened
A night cross-country flight ended in an accident when the aircraft struck trees approximately 0.75 miles from the runway threshold. Upon arriving near the destination, the pilot encountered weather consisting of mist and visibility of 2 statute miles, with an overcast ceiling at 100 feet. The pilot requested an instrument flight rules clearance and was assigned the ILS 24 approach, which carried an altitude restriction of 1,500 feet MSL until the localizer was established.
During communications with the tower, the controller issued a low altitude alert. The pilot indicated that the aircraft was climbing, after which the controller cleared the aircraft for landing. Following this exchange, no further radio contact was established. The aircraft was later found in a wooded area, positioned roughly 50 feet to the right of the extended centerline. There were 0 fatalities reported in the source text, though the aircraft was lost.
Findings
Radar tracking indicated that the aircraft was at 700 feet approximately 4 miles from the airport and had descended to 300 feet roughly 1.5 miles from the airport. Analysis of the approach plate showed that the minimum glide slope intercept altitude for the precision approach was 1,500 feet. The pilot had a total of 1,946 flight hours, including 252 hours in the aircraft type. Notably, the pilot had not completed the required initial and recurrent training for this specific model. The flight was conducted without a weather briefing or flight plan.