Chris Iz: I wouldn't disagree with FGD135. The best description I've read was on the other Erebus thread, by someone with the moniker of Bryan Abraham, who used the phrase "VMC bubble". This was another of those VMC/IFC accidents, just like JFK Jnr. He thought he could follow the lights along the coast to Martha's Vineyard, but couldn't see the cloud ahead, because it was dark. Once he entered the cloud, he lost all visual reference and couldn't distinguish up from down. If he had bothered to get his instrument rating, it would have been drummed into his head that he was to ignore his eyes and fly solely on his instruments.