Not Simply an Optical Illusion

Following up on this post, I used the flight simulator software (Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004) along with some guidance from Marcus Icke, to model the scene shown in the clip.

What I found is that the problem is NOT where the plane comes in, since at a viewpoint at some distance from the towers, with a lower elevation (as in the video), you would in fact see the plane come in at a lower angle than where it hits the tower. The problem is that in the video, the plane has a DOWNWARD path, where in reality, to hit the appropriate spot on the south tower, the plane needs to have a slight ASCENT as it approaches the tower.

In the screen capture below, I've marked where the plane enters on the right with a circle, designated the apparent path with a line and marked where the explosion occurs with a circle on the tower.



Here again is the video:


So, there is something farked with this video.

Now the fun will be to use the Flight Simulator software to model other 2nd hit videos, and in particular to compare paths in other videos.

One thing I have learned from looking at these videos, is that perspective can be a tricky thing, and that is why it is important to have the computer simulation that can over-ride brain-eye biases.