Posted by Budleon:
ThadBeier has put forward some very solid points on why it might be fake. There are two elements of
ThadBeier's ideas I'd like to challenge though. [snip]
Rayleigh Scattering doesn't occur in the object being viewed (in this case the smoke), it occurs in the intervening gaseous atmosphere. It is particularly noticeable against dark or black objects because, by definition, they are not emitting or reflecting any light themselves, and so only the blue light scattered into the observer's line of sight is visible. For an aircraft at an altitude of 6 miles, 30 degrees above the horizon, the slant range to the observer is approximately 12 miles. Try looking at a mountain or similar 12 miles away and you'll readily see the blue tint over it.
Deceleration. At TOC, the aircraft will have had an airspeed of around 400 knots, or around 700 feet per second. To decelerate to an average speed of 232 feet per second in half a second would require a deceleration of many tens of g's. In fact, under a linear deceleration, it would have had to have come to rest well before the half second was up in order to achieve that average speed, suffering a deceleration of some 66g in the process. All while continuing on in an essentially unchanged attitude, as portrayed in the video. Unlikely.
Finally, I suggest following ThadBeier's advice and googling his filmography. I am not normally given to accepting "arguments from authority" at face value, but I think that you'll find that he is more than amply qualified to opine on the veracity of visual effects. Probably as well qualified as anyone on the planet.