I got the crash also: I think I found the culprit. It's not just night mission, at least for me. It's the shotguns. I need to bring the shotgun, otherwise I'll crash.
Okay here's what I did:
1. Create new game
2. Shot down a UFO
3. Reequip the strike team - namely the assault guy (with shotguns) to be rifleman, both of them. The rest are default
4. Intercept the crash site
5. Loading ground combat screen, at about 90% loaded, there's that music playing a then it crash.
I retried it again, this time I skip step 3 - so the strike team is at default.. the ground combat loaded fine.
