LuckyStrike, you make a very good point about lights where there should only be black water. I would think this would apply even more so on the outbound leg. Could be the outbound on 253 is plain wrong. Still, I believe it was stated the pilots were new to the area?, and the villages appear to be small. I wonder how many lights there would be at that time of night. Then there is some water where you will see the light from a boat. A pilot's past experience might dictate whether an occasional light over what he thought to be water would raise a red flag or not.
A long day, late night, and the last runway in sight. Sometimes the mind just seems to shut down.