Air controllers in Providence cleared Homan for take-off at 12:06 p.m. after advising him of moderate rains over the airport and heavy precipitation to the south and west, the report says. He was flying in instrument conditions in which the ceiling was lower than 1,000 feet and visibility less than three miles.

A witness told investigators that he saw the plane depart amid thunder and very heavy rain. He lost sight of it in the rain and clouds when it climbed to 300 feet. Moments later, a man working on his boat nearby heard a plane engine followed by a ripping sound. Police officers found the wreckage followed by a trail of debris in a wooded area at 3:05 p.m.

Only a 12-year-old Maine coon cat, Sebastian, survived.

The report shows that an autopsy determined Homan, 58, had recently taken bupropion and fluoxetine -- prescription antidepressants -- and oxcarbazepine, a mildly-impairing anti-seizure medication used to treat pain and manic depression.

The FAA would not typically approve the use of any of the medications, investigators said, and Homan did not indicate their use or a diagnosis for which they would be used in his most recent application for an airman medical certificate.

They could not conclusively establish what role the medications or conditions for which they might have been taken played in the crash.

Homan held a private pilot’s license for single-engine planes, with a rating that allowed him to fly using instruments. He logged about 1,125 hours of flight time, 230 in instrument conditions. The plane had been inspected two months earlier.

A White Plains native, Homan was a renowned surgeon who specialized in treating morbidly obese patients with stomach-bypass surgery. He was director of the bariatric surgery program at White Plains Hospital Center in New York.

The Homans owned a house on Mill Pond Lane on the island.