Exhaust plume off the Calfornia coast

[DFW]

Ah, that fixes it Thanks for the clarification!

No prob. Another thing only locals (and not the "experts") would know. There weren't any large, visible contrails that day or today as a matter of fact. The conditions are such that they were/are dissipating almost instantly.
5-10 % humidity here due to Santa Ana winds from the great Basin.

That's why the news cameraman was drawn to it. In ANY of those pics you won't see any. LA area has so much jet traffic at all altitudes that you can practically step from plane to plane

 

[far-trader]

Doesnt look anything like a contrail to me...

Well, I have seen a lot of jet contrails, sometimes there's not much else for a prairie boy to do than watch the clouds And here, right under several flight lanes, that includes jet contrails. Lots of jet contrails.

Contrails can behave in ways that appear to defy common sense. And I have seen jet contrails that looked just like this, and you'd swear they were a large fast missile launching from just over the horizon.

That said I don't know what this one was. My first reaction was like most, "Wow, a missile launch." Followed quickly by "Bet somebody loses their job for an unscheduled firing." Before wondering if maybe it wasn't just a jet contrail. The chopper video on the net was too poor to make any kind of definitive call. Eyewitness accounts are automatically suspect and once the ball gets rolling even more so.

It seems to have slipped from the news as quickly as it rose, not surprising really, so it'll probably go into the "We may never know the Real Truth(tm)" slush pile of the conspiracy theorists and live forever on the interwebs

 

[DFW]

It seems to have slipped from the news as quickly as it rose, not surprising really, so it'll probably go into the "We may never know the Real Truth(tm)" slush pile of the conspiracy theorists and live forever on the interwebs

I believe your right. BTW - the P3 activity here is still really high. Pt. Mugu NAS has been like a hornets nest that has been kicked since that afternoon.

 

[far-trader]

...BTW - the P3 activity here is still really high. Pt. Mugu NAS has been like a hornets nest that has been kicked since that afternoon.

See, this is another thing I don't get since you first posted it. Not doubting you at all, but shouldn't others have noted this as well? It seems this in itself would point to something more* than the "official" line. Where's all the journalists asking pointed questions about this? Is there something more vital to national security interests taking all their time? Like Hillary Duff's MILLION dollar wedding ring :roll:

* I can think of a few scenarios, none of them much fun...

 

[DFW]

See, this is another thing I don't get since you first posted it. Not doubting you at all, but shouldn't others have noted this as well?

Who else would have noted it? You have to live here and know the general traffic level to notice the change. The military doesn't give out data on these activities and the "experts" that are flapping their jaws aren't here and don't know enough to investigate.

Just like you have to live here to notice the TOTAL absence of contrails from the 5-10 other jets that were in frame with the missile vid and pics. All those "experts" commenting, are anything but...

Just a sec... Justed looked at the sky. 2 jets inbound from the West, one ~15 feet on approach to Ontario airport (no contrail) the other, a 4 engine ~30k feet. No contrails. Same as that day...

 

[simonh]

Just for fun, here's a picture my brother took with his iPhone. It's pretty clearly someone trying to shoot down god with a rocket. Except it's a contrail, of course.

Simon Hibbs

 

[PFVA63]

Hi,

Thanks for the info. Here'sa brief summary of the few things that I've seen or read on the matter;

A news helicopter crew spots something in the sky that is said to look like a missile headed towards them, and it is tracked for about 10min.

News reports indicate that no other aircraft crews reported anything unusual that day.

Initially the government indicates that they are not sure what is was.

Based on a CBS News segment in one of the links previously posted, the reporter indicates that although the government can't definitively say what it was, a spokesman did indicate that the government was sure it was not a rocket or missile.

Many people claim that the video/images arelikely the contrails of a transpacific jet.

Many individuals comment that either the images do look like images of known missile launches and/or they do not look like any image that they have seen of aircraft contrials.

Some bloggers post that they believe that the images/video is either the contrails of one of two specific commercial jets heading inbound from Hawaii. To support this, one blogger posts an image from a commercial webcam that is said to show an image similar to stills from the original newscopter video but 24 hrs later (though at/near the same time of day), and from a different angle/perspective.

Others post claims that the images/video are of the launch of a Chinese missile from asubmarine operating off the California coast firing out into the Pacific.

Based on the above a couple things struck me. Specifically, the newscopter pilot appears to have indicated that he thought what he saw looked like an inbound missile. The claims that I have seen about a possible Chinese launch appear to claim that it was fired from near the coast to out over the Pacific, which would suggest a path in the opposite direction noted by the newscopter pilot.

Additionally, if it were a missile and it was viewed forabout 10 min, it would seem that it should have covered a significant amount of ground. Specifically, data on the web for the old US Polaris submarine launched missile suggests a speed of about 8000 mph, which would translate to about 1333 miles crossed in 10min (or a little over 1/2 the distance from LA to Hawaii).

Finally, the image from the bloggers from 24hrs after the initial video/stills appears to show avery similar imagein the sky that is said to correspond to the flight path of one of the two commercial jets previously noted. Since no one has claimed that this is an image of a second missile, it seems to suggest to me that it is likely the contrail ofthe plane the blogger suggests, and thus that jet contrails can in fact appear like that shown in both the originalvide/stills and in the image from 24 hrs later.

As such, baring any new info it seems that the explanation that it was likely the contrails of a commercial jet appears to be the best supported explanation from the info I've seen so far.

Regards

PF

 

[simonh]

A news helicopter crew spots something in the sky that is said to look like a missile headed towards them, and it is tracked for about 10min.

As you say, either he's wrong about the 10 minutes, or he's wrong about it being a rocket. They can't both be true.

Simon Hibbs