[TigersEye]

But it does not follow that within that span of time it got big enough for the camera to see.

Here is where Rick Warren has it at 5:23.

In just 8 more minutes (only about 66 miles closer @ 500 mph) UPS902 would be directly over Santa Catalina Island (absolutely confirmed by flightaware and Airport Monitor) which is about 25 miles from LA harbor. That's close enough to see an airplane distinctly with the unaided eye yet you are contending it couldn't be seen 66 miles further out with a very high-powered zoom lens?

[Brian Kopp DPM]

Actually, it can't be seen in Warren's photos either. You're seeing a short contrail in those photos, not the airliner itself:

[Yardstick]

In just 8 more minutes (only about 66 miles closer @ 500 mph) UPS902 would be directly over Santa Catalina Island (absolutely confirmed by flightaware and Airport Monitor) which is about 25 miles from LA harbor. That's close enough to see an airplane distinctly with the unaided eye yet you are contending it couldn't be seen 66 miles further out with a very high-powered zoom lens?

That's 91 miles, nearly the distance from Knoxville to Chattanooga. I'm not an optics guy but that seems pretty far away. And do we even know that the cameraman was trying to keep it in the frame at that time? In the video I've seen he was not.

But this is all academic since we have a picture of the plane flying inland from the west: