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Posted on 11/09/2010 8:05:31 AM PST by Gennie
(CBS) A mysterious missile launch off the southern California coast was caught by CBS affiliate KCBS's cameras Monday night, and officials are staying tight-lipped over the nature of the projectile.
CBS station KFMB put in calls to the Navy and Air Force Monday night about the striking launch off the coast of Los Angeles, which was easily visible from the coast, but the military has said nothing about the launch.
KFMB showed video of the apparent missile to former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Robert Ellsworth, who is also a former Deputy Secretary of Defense, to get his thoughts.
Scroll down for KFMB video showing the launch.
Video here
"It's spectacular… It takes people's breath away," said Ellsworth, calling the projectile, "a big missile".
Magnificent images were captured by the KCBS news helicopter in L.A. around sunset Monday evening. The location of the missile was about 35 miles out to sea, west of L.A. and north of Catalina Island.
A Navy spokesperson told KFMB it wasn't their missile. He said there was no Navy activity reported in the area Monday evening.
On Friday night, Vandenberg Air Force Base, in California, launched a Delta II rocket, carrying an Italian satellite into orbit, but a sergeant at the base told KFMB there had been no launches since then.
Ellsworth urged American to wait for definitive answers to come from the military.
When asked, however, what he thought it might be, the former ambassador said it could possibly have been a missile test timed as a demonstration of American military might as President Obama tours Asia.
"It could be a test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile from a submarine … to demonstrate, mainly to Asia, that we can do that," speculated Ellsworth.
Ellsworth said such tests were carried out in the Atlantic to demonstrate America's power to the Soviets, when there was a Soviet Union, but he doesn't believe an ICBM has previously been tested by the U.S. over the Pacific.
Officially, at least, the projectile remains a mystery missile.
Looks like our MysteryMissile may turn out to be US Airways flight #808!
Honolulu to Phoenix. Look at the flight path and times!
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AWE808/history/20101108/1955Z/PHNL/KPHX
More detailed data for Flight 808...
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AWE808/history/20101108/1955Z/PHNL/KPHX/tracklog
Are you proposing that the Pentagon can’t tell the difference between a large missile and an airplane?
In the video you can determine the thrust of such a launch. Let’s go back to that photo you have? It takes quite the minutes to create a trail like that by a regular passenger jet. The trail left on this video was created in seconds.
That looks like a contrail. The LA incident does not.
At 8:00 PM EST, the plane was at 37,000 feet.
No dice.
Bottom line, if a real 'mystery missile' was actually launched from the vicinity of an established US Navy missile test range only 35 miles from Los Angeles, it was either a US test, or the President is currently negotiating surrender terms with some foreign government. I suspect it's just our 'Fearless Leader' showing off (at the expense of the American taxpayer, as usual) while he's vacationing at his boyhood home in Indonesia...
;>)
I don't have a solid answer to that objection. But I'm not sure we have a real time video of the whole trail. The two videos I'm relying on don't give me very long real time view, and without better reference as to the distance and true angle.. I dunno.
The spread of the trail is related to speed and this trail seems much wider than that of a missile, indicating less speed and more time.
That's the best I can do with it. Thanks for your reply.
I think they can. What would the Pentagon's reaction be IF a missile was launched off the CA coast? What would the Navy and Air Force response be? How many aircraft and naval craft would be scrambled to the area? How many sorties would be sent up and down the coast? What ships anywhere near would be boarded? What missile detection alarms and response would be triggered. IF it were a missile?
What would the military response be if it was a missile, and what has it actually been?
Catching this late, but has the option of a (wealthy) amateur rocketeer been asked?
"The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, issued a statement jointly with the U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, saying that the contrail was not the result of a foreign military launching a missile. It provided no further details. "So, you have the Pentagon saying it's not their "missile" (and they don't know what it was), and NORAD saying it's not a foreign missile. Neither are saying it is a missile at all.
IIRC, that was proposed and, I believe, someone discounted due to size and the private firm’s capability. But the threads are long and my memory short... :)
no joke. now this -
Update on mystery plume over Calif.: Defense official tells NBC most likely cause was an airplane, not a missile
http://twitter.com/BreakingNEWs
Wasn’t there a flame signature on that projectile?. Not likely for a commerical jet
At least they didn’t tell us it was a weather baloon
I honestly have seen no information on what norad/dod’s actual real reaction has been. Their public denials mainly mean it is something that discussing in public requires a political decision to allow.
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