Upon confirming there was a 15 nautical miles (17 mi; 28 km) wide break in the storm the crew departed at night under visual flight rules (VFR).

The cockpit voice recorder later revealed the first officer was flying the plane while the captain advised him of headings and altitudes to take to navigate around the storm.

He alerted the captain they were too low saying, "Minimum en route altitude here is forty-four hun ..." At that point the recorder cut off as the plane struck Black Fork Mountain.

If they had been operating under instrument flight rules they would have been tracked by radar or required to make position reports to air traffic control en route.

The captain also could have contacted controllers in Fort Worth to open their flight plan or receive radar vectoring in the area.