Contrail in the sky west of Los Angeles, Nov 8, 2010

This area of the ocean off California often has missile tests, but much farther out to sea. But there is also Point Magu Missile range, as well as San Nicolas Island. Ohio class submarines often test off the coast of San Diego, but do so much farther out from shore, and out of view.

Missiles travel much faster than this object did. I used to sit and watch Vandenberg Air Force launches myself, so I know what it looks like. VAFB is full of underground missile silos.

The most likely explanation is that it is UPS flight 902, UPS902, or US Airways flight 808 (AWE808), coming directly up over the horizon. There are pictures of similar contrails from a passenger plane snapped in nearby Orange County, facing west. Look around on line and you will find those pictures.

One thing in particular that I learned from first seeing this footage, is that a contrail can, in fact, come straight up vertically from a horizon. It can look like this if a plane is coming from a direction which happens to be perpendicular to your location (in reference to the line of horizon). In addition, given certain factors in the atmosphere, such as levels of humidity and the air temperature, a contrail can greatly expand. "Thank you" to the pilots whom I spoke to about this.

About the idea that this was a Chinese submarine missile launch:
As Brian Webb stated..."It is reasonable to assume that the U.S. Navy has at least a partial ability track the movements of Chinese submarines. Furthermore, U.S. early warning satellites and radars (such as PAVE PAWS radar at Beale AFB in northern California) provide the U.S. military with the ability to immediately detect, pinpoint, and track missile launches at sea. The Navy probably also still has a formidable anti-submarine warfare capability that would allow it to quickly locate and kill hostile submarines.
The assertion that the event of last week was a Chinese weapons is highly unlikely." Source: Brian Webb, Launch Alert

Category:

News & Politics

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• missile
• launch
• los
• angeles
• november
• 2010
• pacific
• mysterious
• mystery
• navy
• denies