[Brian Kopp DPM]

I finally tracked down an actual witness, a photographer out in LA. He took these photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocean_rick/5165540970/?reg=1&src=comment

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocean_rick/5165538062/in/photostream/

I contacted him via PM at Flickr. Here’s his response:

Subject: Re: contrail photo question
Date: 26th November, 2010

Hi Dr. Kopp
I really wasn’t sure what I had at the time. I was shooting with a telephoto lens and looking through a viewfinder so I never really saw the seperation of the object and the contrail untell I looked at the photos but I’m sure that this whole thing lasted way to long to be a missile. I see lots of contrails from my 10th floor balcony but the difference in this one was that it “seemed” to be going up. I then gave Mick West ( of Contrail Science) the use of all my photos to work with to try and figure this thing out. I’m now of the opinion that it was indeed a plane. Here’s a link to his site in case you haven’t seen it yet.
Hope this helps. Rick

http://contrailscience.com/los-angeles-missile-contrail-explained-in-pictures/

[Gargantua]

Look at the bottom of the photo (the top photo in this sequence of 2 you posted). You can still see the massive efflux "reverse mushroom" at the base of the blast trail, just over the landmass in front of it, but way closer than the pictured horizon.

This photo proves conlusively that it was, indeed, a missile. No "jet contrail" would have that much mass at it's furthest-away point (close to 400 miles from this perspective if it were from a jet at 30,000+ feet). Plus the base is way in the foreground compared to what this photo shows as the "horizon."

Also, you can see even more clearly that the trail is backlit, as would be a launch efflux rising vertically, and not underlit as would be a jet contrail stretched horizontally at 30,000+ feet at this time of day.

Thank you for clearing this up. I knew it was a missile launch, and this photo proves it.

;-\

[TigersEye]

Yeah, Rick Warren. There are only two pics there. Someone said he took about 57 pics of it where are the other 55? Why would anyone take 57 pics of an airplane contrail?