I was working in NY City when that happened and both the Post and the News had pictures from partygoers on Long Island showing the rocket going up.
These were accidental pictures taken as the partiers were taking photos of their friends. There must have been at least a dozen of these form different places on Long Island.
The “official” answer was that these were photos of the flaming fuel dropping down from the airplane.
I watched the missile attack on CNN multiple times late that night until it was taken down and the new narrative imposed. Fuel would be trailing behind, the missile exhaust was going up. There was no explosion until the exhaust trail caught the plane. That was the night CNN went from real news to fake news and never looked back. Like Mulder says “the truth is out there”.