Wow! That’s something, especially at night! 
might be this one right here…N581ES
Yeah, I’m real familar with the area,but not the Metrolink station. F-Heights itself is a densly populated area, East of it is alot of farm ground (and Scott AFB/Belleville Airport) West of it though (which presumably was his flightpath) is a bluff created by the Mississippi River (about 4 mi west) and an east/west interstate. At night, like you say, it’s sparse for sure!
I love Metrolink! I call it “The Louis” (LOO-wee)
off the top of my head for the last 40 NM along the route you’ve got Centralia, Vandalia, and then within 15 NM and still on the east of CPS you’ve got Belleville (Scott AFB) also Shaffer east (although getting set up for the approach if in IFR wouldn’t work out… Three hours enroute, I guess just because I rent so I don’t have to worry as much, but unless for w/b purposes I need less, I always top off for my hour flights. Why not?
I’m armchairing it though without any of the in depth facts, so I’m hopefully missing most of the jist.
Wazzu, ha yeah the Metrolink is a pretty good little light rail. Before I worked for the passenger railroad, and when I worked for the airline, I would buy a 10$ ticket to STL, Metrolink it, or “Louie” it over to Lambert and hop one of our state of the art Jetstream 31’s (minus prop synch, autopilot and air conditioning) back to SPI for a little fun day.
That’s awesome! I learned to drive in a slug bug that had a louder horn than The Louis!