The superstition mtns range juts out of the ground and go straight up several thousand feet. the whole phoenix metro area is relatively flat and is surrounded by mtns. the plane took of in mesa,AZ and the superstitions are pretty close by, and with no lights from the moon, its not suprising this happend
Reba Mcentire lost her band in a nearly identical accident. Controlled flight into rising terrain. Unexcusable nowadays because there are so many cheap aviation GPS’s that alert you to terrain and obstructions.
Very possible if the pilot wasn’t familiar with the area and was trying to do a visual only night flight through that area where the terrain rises quickly. It’s happened before. Our mountains here in Colorado are littered with pilots not from this area bouncing into the mountain sides.
I wasn't going to say anything but that's just not right. It's extremely surprising that it happened because the Superstition front is WELL KNOWN. You damn near have to try to fly into them out of Falcon Field, since there's so much flat, clear space around the airport...except to the East.
Second guessing what happened to this guy is a waste of time. He was a professional pilot working for Ponderosa Aviation and probably had all the ratings you need to stay safe. How he could not have known about the mountains and be flying around in a Twin Commander is beyond me.
So I would have to say maybe something happened to the aircraft: lost an engine and got busy/couldn't climb, lost avionics leading to dark cockpit (witnesses did mention him turning a couple of times), etc.