I heard it on ABC radio news at 7:00am est, and I was awake and driving. It said the pilot reported it to the tower while he could still see the rocket trail ahead of him. They reported the FBI saying it was probably a flare or bottle rocket. I, too said "At 6,000 feet???"! The description implied that the pilot saw the 'rocket' early enough to be able to make the radio call while it was still in site, so I was thinking he saw it coming up at him too...
I heard it on the radio at the top of the hour 10:00 am. It was ABC news. It was reported just like you said. They reported the FBI saying it was probably a flare or bottle rocket. Sounds like a crock, you would think that if they were not sure they would report it that way. Another reason not to believe the MSM.
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I work at FAA in Chicago. Three years ago, there was a report of pilots seeing "something come out of the water" off the coast of FL and form contrails that shot out heading Northeast over the US. NORAD scrambled jet fighters to intercept. They had the contrail headed fast and high but the jets couldn't keep up.
NORAD had said there would be an investigation. So far...no result.
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/Central/11/28/contrail.scramble/index.html