re: La Nat Guard soldiers among those killed in helicopter crash. *PRAYERS*

I'm not any kind of pilot, much less a military pilot with thousands of hours. Maybe you can answer a couple of questions for me...

If media reports are accurate, this accident happened around 8:30pm. Civil twilight would have ended an hour or so earlier and moonrise wasn't until 11:22pm that night. I assume it was a very dark night. The pilots have available, if they weren't already wearing, NVGs, but wouldn't they be flying on instruments? I understand that if they flew into a fog bank that they'd lose any exterior visual references (lights on the horizon, etc.), but aren't they primarily relying on their instruments already?

I'm not trying to be disrespectful or place blame, I'm just trying to figure out how you guys are operating in the cockpit.