Runway 36 at YROM, YTGM, YCMU and rwy 12 at YBCV on take-off are as black as you get on a moonless night.
Could not agree more. On the morning of the accident I heard what sounded like an SE piston engine aircraft perhaps around 5.00 am, which struck me at the time as unusual. I guess it may have been the 210 arriving at Roma, or it may have been one of the aircraft headed to a big funeral that day in Tambo.
If the accident happened between 05.30 am and just before 6.00 am, it was still dark enough that the pilot would not have had a clear visual ground reference off runway 36 until passing over the houses on Orange Hill.