I don’t know or remember if this flight took off after dark or near dark. What you say sounds logical.
If was a red eye flight and after it disappeared it was headed west toward Africa.
Saturday
12:41 a.m.: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 departs Kuala Lumpur International Airport en route to Beijing. The weather is good.
The plane is carrying 239 people: 227 passengers and 12 crew members. Five passengers are under age 5. There are 13 nationalities represented on board. More than half (154) are Chinese/Taiwanese. Other passengers were from Malaysia (38), India (5), Indonesia, Australia, the United States (3), France, New Zealand, Ukraine, Canada, Russia, Italy (see above), Austria (see above), and the Netherlands.
The plane is a Boeing 777-200ER. This aircraft has an excellent safety record. Malaysia Airlines has 15 of the 777-200 planes in its fleet. The airline operates in Southeast Asia, East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and on the route between Europe and Australasia.
The expected trip length was roughly 2,700 miles (4,350 kilometers). It was expected to land in Beijing at 6:30 a.m.
I believe that it took off at 12:30 AM local time and was scheduled to land at 6:30AM in Beijing.