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L.A. ‘mystery missile’ may have been "errant" launch, experts say (Read that "accidental")
LA Times ^ | 11/09/2010 | LA Times

Posted on 11/09/2010 3:33:25 PM PST by The Magical Mischief Tour

Military officials remain stumped about the mysterious projectile spotted in the sky off the Southern California coast, but aerospace experts said it appeared to be an errant missile launch.

Pentagon officials are looking into what they have called an "unexplained contrail" after a KCBS news helicopter shot video late Monday of a luminous point hurtling through the sky followed by a long vapor trail.

SNIP

The lack of explanation from the Pentagon makes Caceres believe it may have been a mistake -- perhaps a defense exercise launched by accident.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: 800; californiamissile; contrail; flight800; missilemystery; mysterymissile; tinfoilbrigade; twa; twaflight800
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

Satellite will have it... right down to where it landed. Retrieval might take some time but anything is possible.

Many questions beg answers, foremost being if it aint ours how did they get in so close for a launch? Just who is playing show and tell?


21 posted on 11/09/2010 3:45:12 PM PST by himno hero
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To: MindBender26

Wonder if there were any Iranian ships in the area?


22 posted on 11/09/2010 3:45:27 PM PST by Kozak ("It's not an Election it's a Restraining Order" .....PJ O'Rourke)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

Doesn’t Vandenberg AFB launch missiles? But then again, what another poster wrote ... “what, did somebody trip over a wire or something?” ... I remember reading that countdown clocks start weeks before a launch and shortly before launch it’s all automatic ... wonder if somebody plugged their cellphone in to charge it and .... whooomph ....


23 posted on 11/09/2010 3:45:34 PM PST by SkyDancer ("If You Don't Read The News You're Uninformed, If You Do Read The News You're Misinformed")
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To: MindBender26
We have no launch faclities 35 miles west of LA.... just a lot of deep water.

Sea Launch home port is in Long Beach. Just saying....

24 posted on 11/09/2010 3:46:55 PM PST by r9etb
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

I am willing to buy this “maybe”. I mean there was air traffic in the direct vicinity at the time. So this was 2 things 1. An accident 2. A warning.

I am not buying the airplane on the horizon theory...sorry.


25 posted on 11/09/2010 3:47:57 PM PST by My Favorite Headache (In a world where I feel so small, I can't stop thinking big.)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour
In the video you can clearly see the glow of the engines at the source point of the plume.

I saw that, too. But, is it possible that it was actually a reflection?

This was late in the day, and I think the sun was either near or below the horizon. Maybe the angle was just right to catch the reflection on an unpainted plane?

The thing that makes me wonder: how could radar miss this? I think someone needs to look at what was actually flying through that area and see if the path matches the contrail.

26 posted on 11/09/2010 3:48:02 PM PST by justlurking (The only remedy for a bad guy with a gun is a good WOMAN (Sgt. Kimberly Munley) with a gun)
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To: MindBender26

Reminds me of the movie “Operation Petticoat” where the woman accidentally launches a torpedo, and it sinks a truck.

I am betting it was a sub-roc off one of our boats, it may have had a drill and somebody removed a safety, or neglected the safety interlocks, our boats are technically always on war footing.

Or and this may have a lot of truth due to current friction with other countries is that it was a warning shot, and I had a thought that maybe it was supposed to be Obamas “Oklahoma City” where a rogue sub launches a missile at the CONUS. China can get past our SOSUS if they have the technical zone mapping.

Or perhaps a sub was given orders to launch but miss Air Force One thus giving Obama an upper hand to get serious and divert attention from other issues. But the launch was premature, captains decision to make an “error”?

In summary I think Obama knows what it was because he ordered it.


27 posted on 11/09/2010 3:48:10 PM PST by Eye of Unk (If your enemy is quick to anger, seek to irritate him. Sun Tzu, The Art of War.)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

I dunno why everyone thinks its a “model” or an Iranian toy. Its clearly a very large solid fuel ICBM or Space vehicle. I see space launches a lot in FL here.


28 posted on 11/09/2010 3:48:15 PM PST by omega4179 (Quem deus vult perdere, dementat prius)
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To: FrankR
...it would be really hard - especially in the nuke category - to "accidentally" launch a missile.

What makes you think it was a nuke? Was there a big boom when it came down?

29 posted on 11/09/2010 3:48:52 PM PST by 3niner (When Obama succeeds, America fails.)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour
A bit of logic is in order here:

Do people realize that at any time off the coast of California there's hundreds of commercial ships and private watercraft in the vicinity where this 'missile' launch allegedly occurred? That the skies of SoCal are filled with commercial and private aircraft taking off and landing at any given moment? That there's always countless human beings watching the coast from any number of vantage points, most of whom have quality digital cell phone cameras capable of recording video?

Yet nobody reported a thing except this wacky news copter crew? No fishing vessels off Long Beach fishing for yellowtail tuna saw an ICBM missile come roaring out of the water on a column of fire like a Polaris ICBM launch? Nobody but this TV news chopper recorded this amazing event? No commercial airliners taking off from LAX, John Wayne, Ontario, or Long Beach airports saw an obvious missile roar into space past their position? No USMC, Navy, or Coast Guard pilots flying around saw a thing? No Coast Guard cutters reported seeing a sub-launched missile bloom and the tell-tale column of smoke rising up from the ocean?

Thousands of people didn't capture astonishing cell phone came video from all points of the compass of this "missile" soaring into space and breathlessly post it on YouTube and alert their local media?

No reports at all?

It was a flipping contrail from a commercial jet, folks. Just some peculiar anomaly of general aviation captured by happenstance photography.

30 posted on 11/09/2010 3:48:56 PM PST by The KG9 Kid
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour
"... In the video you can clearly see the glow of the engines at the source point of the plume."

You can't 'clearly' see anything of the sort.

Couldn't possibly be reflection off the windows or skin of a jetliner, right?

31 posted on 11/09/2010 3:50:15 PM PST by The KG9 Kid
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To: MindBender26
We have no launch faclities 35 miles west of LA....

Sometimes we do. They're often called "boomers", more properly known as Ballistic Missle Submarines.

32 posted on 11/09/2010 3:51:40 PM PST by 3niner (When Obama succeeds, America fails.)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour
Maybe Duke Nukem is back! Photobucket
33 posted on 11/09/2010 3:51:50 PM PST by dynachrome ("Our forefathers didn't bury their guns. They buried those that tried to take them.")
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To: JennysCool

There’s video. It’s a missile. Even the Pentagon is admitting its a missile. They just don’t know who’s missile it is, which makes you question why trillions are spent on defense.


34 posted on 11/09/2010 3:53:29 PM PST by RinaseaofDs (Does beheading qualify as 'breaking my back', in the Jeffersonian sense of the expression?)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour
It was the Democrats version of this-

They were giving Obama the ALL CLEAR to return to the US.

35 posted on 11/09/2010 3:53:30 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (Lame and ill-informed post)
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To: The KG9 Kid
It was a flipping contrail from a commercial jet, folks. Just some peculiar anomaly of general aviation captured by happenstance photography.

Probably correct... but it's so much more fun the other way.

36 posted on 11/09/2010 3:53:37 PM PST by r9etb
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

Honey I launched the missles.


37 posted on 11/09/2010 3:54:07 PM PST by HerrBlucher (Defund, repeal, investigate, impeach, convict, jail, celebrate.)
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To: 3niner
I will blame it on a case of "assumption". LOL

It was [supposedly] launched from a ship, which many times are nukes.

But, if it was a "practice" launch, it probably wasn't armed.

I worked on air-to-air missiles, but we had a "nuke" variety and I remember all the redundant precautions we had to take to even be in the room with it.

But I'm probably way off base, so, as Gilda Radner used to say, "Never mind".
38 posted on 11/09/2010 3:54:24 PM PST by FrankR (Don't let the bastards wear you down!)
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To: donhunt
The North Koreans just got it backwards. That’s all.

You know, there might be something to that... if say in all the haste to prep, ship and launch a missile they forgot to change its programed targeting and instead of heading inland it headed towards the NK Target area. Where they've been sending their missiles all along. That would be in the same direction.

39 posted on 11/09/2010 3:55:59 PM PST by The Magical Mischief Tour
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To: r9etb

I hate to spoil the fun of the “THEY’RE TERKING ER JERBS!” contingent on FR, but the speculation was getting way out of hand.


40 posted on 11/09/2010 3:56:38 PM PST by The KG9 Kid
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