Just a guess but I suspect the pilot had never flown with that much weight before and didn’t perform a Weight & Balance sheet to determine his performance figures. The airplane didn’t climb like he expected and had control/stall issues, which is why he didn’t turn away. That type of accident happens a bit more than people know.
According to my weather clock, it’s a new moon. Flying over terrain with few or no lights on the ground, and no moon means it must have been very dark, with few or no visual references to the ground. Under those conditions, it’s almost like not being able to see at all. Pilot may have had no idea what he was flying towards.
http://www.aopa.org/asf/epilot_acc/lax06fa091.html
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
I think it is called CFIT.
I took flying lessons years ago. I decided it wasn't for me because I had the damndest time with weight/load ratios. I never could wrap my math impaired brain around it, and my instructor was adamant that it was the second most important thing you had to master if you were a private pilot.