[MNDude]

A phallic shaped object with fire shooting out the back end of it? How can you possibly get a helicopter out of that?

[Yo-Yo]

You have to read the entire linked article. The Cliff Notes version is that it was a 20 second time lapse image, which accounts for the streak. It was travelling directly away from the camera, which accounts for the vertical flight path illusion.

There have been previous photos of ‘missiles’ that were aircraft contrails of a airplane heading straight for the camera, and had the appearance of being vertical. I’ve witnessed it myself, living under a major flyway.

But this was not a helicopter. If it were, the streak would not be orange, it would be green and red, with white strobes.

[Boogieman]

It’s a time lapse photograph. So there is no “fire” shooting out the back of it, that is just the time lapse of the helicopter’s lights, just like when you do a time lapse of a freeway and all the car’s headlights look like long lines of light.

[mlo]

"A phallic shaped object with fire shooting out the back end of it? How can you possibly get a helicopter out of that?"

Long exposure of a moving object with lights. Pretty simple actually.