Posted on 11/10/2010 8:24:09 AM PST by MindBender26
California Contrail Explained - Not Missile
After having about 10 experienced pilots and another 20 of us who are accustomed to watching missile launches from Cape Canaveral review tape, we have most probable answer for the mysterious California contrail. Tape was also reviewed by senior official at NGA.
It is not a missile. It is the contrail of a airliner at altitude moving toward the camera, at an angle of about 30 degrees off center to the right. Retired TRANSPAC airline pilots and USAF types said it was a rather common sight to see as they are climbing out over water on a westerly heading at sunset.
A few clues:
1. This is not as new event. The photographer who took video said in interview that it was very much like others he had seen week earlier.
2. Expanding contrail plume gives illusion that bottom/rear of plume is closer to observer than the top/newest part of plume, that which is near the aircraft. It is an illusion.
3. The light emanating from the object that looks like rocket flame is a reflection of the sun off the aluminum bottom of the a/c fuselage. The clues that it is not a rocket flame are that it is not hidden by contrail, and more importantly, is the same color temperature as the sun's other reflections.
4. There were no alarms from the DSP satellites. They detect heat from rocket launches from geostationary orbit. They are very good, so good in fact that when Sovs had a fire in an ICBM silo a few years ago, it was reported at NORAD immediately.
5. No radar, and there are numerous ATC and air defense radars in that area, had any track, primary or transponder, of any object on a course as speculated.
All in all, a false alarm. A very interesting one, but a false alarm.
Not the first false alarm, either. In the 60s, we went to DEFCON 2 based on DEW and PineTree line radar returns indicating Sov bombers inbound over Greenland. Was really delayed radar echoes off the rising moon.
Swamp gas!
Yeah, I had my money on swamp gas, too.
Did anyone ask Art Bell?
That was a close one! The citizens almost got close to the truth that time!
An explaination two days later.
Move along. Nothing to see.
Whatever.
No, weather balloon.
BS!!! It’s the Middle Earth people going for a ride.
Bulltickie!
B.S. meter taking off like the missile did.
Bull.
Just a solid rocket powered airliner
Nothing to see here.
Obviously it was a really big waterspout!
Why can´t it be identified then? With all the ATC in the area, this ¨airliner¨ hypothesis seems pretty flimsy.
Bullsh*t.
I want to believe this explanation.
It's heading towards the camera, but at the same time heading west? Wouldn't the photographer have to be out at sea then?
“No radar”
If airplanes don’t show up on radar, what are all those guys in the control tower looking at? Nintendo?
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