Posted on 11/10/2010 9:00:55 AM PST by roses of sharon
(CBS) More than a day after a CBS camera caught video of an unidentified projectile leaving a condensation trail off the California coast, the situation remains a mystery, with the Defense Department insisting that it was not a missile.
The Pentagon is still not sure what that was in the sky off the coast of California -- except that it was not a missile fired by the U.S. or some other country, reports CBS News Pentagon correspondent David Martin.
The video of what looks for all the world like the contrail of a missile was shot Monday evening by KCBS cameraman Gil Leyvas from a news helicopter over Los Angeles.
"I saw a big plume coming up, rising from looked like beyond the horizon and it continued to grow," Leyvas said.
He zoomed his camera in and stayed on it for about 10 minutes. To him it looked like an incoming missile.
"It was unique. It was moving," he said. "It was growing in the sky."
The Pentagon spends billions of dollars a year making sure it is never surprised by a missile launch - so finding out what the camera saw became a top priority. Both the Navy and the Air Force insisted they had not launched any missiles and the North American Air Defense Command - which is supposed to track incoming missiles - declared it had not been fired by any other military. But nobody could say what it was.
But Doug Richardson, the editor of Jane’s Missiles and Rockets, examined the video for the Times of London and said he was left with little doubt.
"It’s a solid propellant missile," he told the Times. "You can tell from the efflux [smoke]."
Richardson said it could have been a ballistic missile launched from a submarine or an interceptor, the defensive anti-missile weapon used by Navy surface ships.
The Twitterati had a field day Tuesday, tweeting comments like "Can someone please tell me how our Department of Defense has no idea who launched a missile from California's coast?"; "So nobody in our government or military knows? Scary."; and "If you misplaced a missile off the coast of California, the U.S. government would like to have a few words with you."
The Federal Aviation Administration did not receive any reports of a missile from other pilots in the area or track any unusually fast objects. The Air Defense Command determined the object was not traveling fast enough or have a big enough exhaust plume to be a military missile.
The best guess right now is that it was either an airliner or an amateur rocket, but we may never know for certain.
But Doug Richardson, the editor of Jane’s Missiles and Rockets, examined the video for the Times of London and said he was left with little doubt.
"It’s a solid propellant missile," he told the Times. "You can tell from the efflux [smoke]."
Richardson said it could have been a ballistic missile launched from a submarine or an interceptor, the defensive anti-missile weapon used by Navy surface ships
It must have shot down the aircraft that was on that flight path and at that altitude and replaced the crew and plane with dopplegangers who landed and went on their way.
It was obviously a weather balloon!
Give it a few days. Whoever did the one yesterday is probably going to try again. It’s not like our Dept. of Defense seems to care or anything, so if you’re a bad guy who’s doing something you shouldn’t be doing, why would you be afraid of this administration?
My 3rd cousin’s college roommate’s moose-bitten sister wrote on her Facebook that her Uncle Freddy tweeted he saw it and it’s for real a plane - it was right after someone moved his cheese while he was in the shower and his beeber was in the shop from too much stunning. And he was logged in too.
They are trying to pin this on an airliner coming from Hawaii (flight 808) but I think that is very unconvincing (FAA radar showed no planes in the area).
It looks like a missile, and all the other explanations ring false.
Conclusion: Our government is lying.
I’m no expert, but I did shoot missiles in the Navy. It did look suspciously like a solid propellant missile, just like the Talos missiles I used to help shoot.
It was obviously a weather balloon!
****************
Whale spume. Really big whale.
Regarding this missile event, things can be broken down to two basic questions: is the executive branch merely incompetent, or is it outright malignant?
It was a whale fart.
Mike
USO.
What are ballon-boy and his parents up to these days?
This just doesn't look at all like an airliner's contrail from approach angle or composition.
If it was such a "common" occurance, why did the experienced arial observer freak out and cause all the commotion?
BTW, I think it was nothing extraordinary. But what the hell was it?
maybe it is obama’s failed attempts to attack the only state in 50 who remains a dem state?
ROTFL!!
Every item in the news (or not in the news also) eventually comes down to that question, it seems.
My question is do we know the location of all foreign Navy Ballistic Missile Submarines?
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