Yesterday I was convinced it was a missile launch.
Then somewhere today I read that the CBS helicopter camera man filmed this for 10 minutes.
A jet would certainly remain in view for ten minutes, but would a missile launch? I don’t know the answer to that, but I doubt it.
The full video only lasts about a minute.
The time it took to lay down exposes that it is not an airplane. The news film begins when the contrail is about half the length it is by the end of the video. If it were an airplane it would take a couple of minutes to cover that much sky that far away. (To be an airplane contrail coming from the horizon it would have to be much further away than 35 miles even at the end of the video when it simply disappears from view.) The video shows it all being laid down in a few seconds.
Then somewhere today I read that the CBS helicopter camera man filmed this for 10 minutes.
A jet would certainly remain in view for ten minutes, but would a missile launch? I don’t know the answer to that, but I doubt it.
I have seen many missile launches and that video sure looked exactly like some SLBM launches.
Writing that, if the camera man filmed it for ten minutes it was definitely an aircraft as missiles only burn for around five minutes or so before releasing the RV/s. The fuel burns out pretty fast.
I would like to point out, and tell me if I am seeing it wrong, but many here have stated that it was a flight to Arizona.
Given the position of the setting sun and the angle to which it reflects off the contrail would not the object in question be flying WNW or somewhat North? I thought Phoenix was to the Southeast from there (to the left of the video).
BS. I watched the original video, and the thing was over in seconds. Straight up, almost, first stage. Visible stage separation and course change.
As for why and who: here's a thought. What would happen if "somebody" was to vaporize DC while BarackaFlacka was having his whole administration and loyal apparatus over in his old country? Chaos. Nartial law. Blank slate, most opponents gone.
Easy enought to sneak a missile-capable sub up there from, say, Venezuela. Iran, for example, is supposed to be building their own but have been buying subs for years. And there's starting to be a good many missile systems available for firing from a torpedo tube.
Obviously, a strike didn't happen. Malfunction?
“A jet would certainly remain in view for ten minutes, but would a missile launch?”
Uh...no. As an expert is west coast missile launches, having completed dozens of them, that missile is more than 1,700 miles away in ten minutes, over the horizon and looking for a place to crash. This wasn’t a missile.