A flare sounds resonable but I don't even think it is that. I would say just a distortment of the film. It actually appers to be more in the forground. Even a flare I think some one on the deck would have taken notice. It's too blurry given that you can easily make out the shape of a plane in the background. Like I said some kind of distorment after the film sat for years.

__________________
"Don't one of you fire until you see the whites of their eyes! Powder is scarce and must not be wasted. Fire low! You are all marksmen and could kill a squirrel at a hundred yards. Reserve your fire and the enemy will all be destroyed! - Israel Putnam, at the Battle of Bunker Hill, 1775
"War is a conflict of great interests which is settled by bloodshed, and only in that is it different from others." - Karl von Clausewitz