You describe how far the horizon is, on a flat plain, from ground level. Think about this. A contrail at 30k ft. stretching out nearly to the horizon. Being so high the visible far end of that contrail would be much further than 30 miles wouldn't it?
Many very interesting posts there. I am only part way through them. They seem to have established that there was a NOTAM at that time not just afterwards as others have said.
(post #8) JG says:
November 9, 2010 at 6:41 pm
A Notam was put out for that area for 20:00 yesterday.NOTAM for LA. KZLA LOS ANGELES A2832/10 – THE FOLLOWING RESTRICTIONS ARE REQUIRED DUE TO NAVAL AIR WARFARE CENTER WEAPONS DIVISION ACTIVATION OF W537. IN THE INTEREST OF SAFETY, ALL NON-PARTICIPATING PILOTS ARE ADVISED TO AVOID W537. IFR TRAFFIC UNDER ATC JURISDICTION SHOULD ANTICIPATE CLEARANCE AROUND W537 AND CAE 1176. CAE 1155 WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE FOR OCEANIC TRANSITION. CAE 1316 & CAE 1318 WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE FOR OCEANIC TRANSITION. CAE 1177 WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR OCEANIC TRANSITION. W537 ACTIVE, CAE 1176 CLOSED. SURFACE – FL390, 09 NOV 20:00 2010 UNTIL 10 NOV 01:00 2010. CREATED: 08 NOV 20:52 2010
Those times are UTC so by PST the NOTAM was on from 12:00 PST to 5:00 PST. It ended about the time the video was made.
Has anyone inquired as to what they saw?
Good question. I have seen nothing on that.
Now that is a biggie....by inference that would mean it was a planned event...which is comforting.