At 7:30 p.m. launching out of Half Moon Bay you are immediately over the darkest ocean you can imagine. It’s no place to be flying for the faint-hearted under the best of conditions.
The plane left an East Bay airport. Not sure why they would fly due west and go out over the ocean at night. It sounds like the plane was low and sputtering over the Moss Beach Distillery which is almost right next door to the Half Moon Bay airport.