It does depend on the aircraft used. Probably the most effective system was a radar equipped torpedo bomber like the TBF-3N. At Truk, just a dozen of these sank over a quarter million tons of shipping striking at night for no losses. Only a general lack of targets kept their overall score low.
The reason these aircraft were so effective was most navies of the WW 2 period have little or no air defense capacity at night. The US and British navies had probably the most advanced air defenses and they could only rely on their heavier AA guns (4" +) that had radar director controls for nighttime air defense. Few of the lighter AA systems had any means of sighting and accurately firing on a target at night. For other navies night air defense was completely blind having no radar control for firing whatsoever.
Thus, the radar equipped torpedo bomber could attack almost with complete impunity and surprise as the US Navy showed at Truk atoll.

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