Mystery missile contrail stumps Pentagon

[AdamG]

W T F, over?

WASHINGTON — The US military has so far been unable to explain an apparent missile contrail off the coast of California and is still trying to determine its cause, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday.

KCBS television caught the long exhaust plume on camera as it arced into the evening sky west of Los Angeles on Monday night, sparking reports of a missile launch.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...6981673a8d.2f1

See also
http://www.cbs8.com/global/category....partnerclipid=

[Entropy]

Probably not a missile.

[AdamG]

Reasonable explanation, but it should have taken less than an hour for the FAA to whip out the flight plan of whatever aircraft was on that vector - as seen from the angle of the film.

Right?


*
If we're playing "Most Likely/Most Dangerous", here's something asymmetrical to think about...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...cks-a-reality/

[slapout9]

Reasonable explanation, but it should have taken less than an hour for the FAA to whip out the flight plan of whatever aircraft was on that vector - as seen from the angle of the film.

Right?


*
If we're playing "Most Likely/Most Dangerous", here's something asymmetrical to think about...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...cks-a-reality/

AdamG,that is interesting because "IF" it is a missile it seems to act more like a solid fuel rocket than some type of a sub launched missile as the media say may have happened. Could very well be contrails too.

[Fuchs]

AdamG,that is interesting because "IF" it is a missile it seems to act more like a solid fuel rocket than some type of a sub launched missile as the media say may have happened.

Many SLBMs have solid fuel rocket engines. It's safer and more durable.

[slapout9]

Many SLBMs have solid fuel rocket engines. It's safer and more durable.

We were talking about SCUD's


I think this guy did it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9uPv3x2eDo

[Entropy]

Reasonable explanation, but it should have taken less than an hour for the FAA to whip out the flight plan of whatever aircraft was on that vector - as seen from the angle of the film.

Right?

Probably, assuming they have the correct time for the sighting.

You can actually track aircraft live and you can see there are always a lot of flights heading toward LAX from the Pacific. Historic data is available if one is willing to pay.

[AdamG]

Probably, assuming they have the correct time for the sighting..

One would think that a minion of the Pentagon would have been all over this like the proverbial white-on-rice in the first hour : if a layman such as I can point out 1) the hard position, bearing and time of the observer (KCBS TV helicopter crew, time marked digital tape) and 2) the database of all flights (from your aforementioned FAA database) within +/- 5 degrees of the observers' camera bearing , match target's travel vector (from point first observed to where it leaves the film frame) to one of the FAA radar tracks and it'd be real simple to say "Oh, that was Flight XXX from XXXX".*

Failure to do so has left the folks responsible for Pax Americana's perimeter security looking like smacked asses.

* Yes, I've done this before - with surface vessels. Made the E4 RTO put down his undergrad coursebook and work up the math, just to make life interesting in the TOC.

*
What the spot reports probably sounded like -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiWQZhUmmRw

[carl]

The reference cited by Entropy states that an aircraft would have taken 12-15 minutes to lay a contrail like that. If it was a missile it would have taken much less time to lay a smoke trail like that. Does anybody know how long the video in question was?