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.
If this were actually a chem-trail, you would think you would see this type of mis-identification quite often. We don’t.
Strangely an airliner moving at 350-450 mph didn’t approach the helicopter fast enough for the crew to realize it was an aircraft.
I’ve not weighed in heavily on this yet. There a plenty enough experts on the topic to meet the needs of open discussion. I’m still not quite buying the ‘move along, nothing happening here’ scenario yet.
They should have known better than to have called it an airliner, though. The obvious next question is "Okay, what flight number was it, from which carrier?"
Because if it was an airliner, that information would be readily available.
I think that was Gov. Arnold blowing stuff out of his rear as he gets his butt out of California for some convention.
Makes as much sense to me as the airplane excuse.
Our State Department initially downplayed the rumors that the North Koreans sank a boat with a torpedo too.
Page seems to be gone now. What did it say?
After watching the video - I call BS, and lots of it. What is being covered up here I wonder?
Heard this morning a host saying that it didn't show up on radar. Shouldn't there have been a plane on radar if that is what it was from?
“Why can´t it be identified then? With all the ATC in the area, this ¨airliner¨ hypothesis seems pretty flimsy.”
Guys, relax, let it go. It was an airliner.
Even Drudge has let it go now.
Flight tracker has the flight number
US Airways flight 808 from Hawaii to Phoenix
http://uncinus.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/4/#more-440]Jet
Good link with lots of examples of other “rockets” and “missiles”.
If it was a massive rocket, we would have gotten the same reports and webcams from all up and down the coast.
Didn’t happen.
Me> SoCal private pilot, backyard astronomy, aerospace nut for over forty years and seen it all including making a point to see Vandenberg launches when possible. I am an experienced SoCal skywatcher to say the least.
It’s an airliner.
So this is like John Belushi and the air raid on los angeles, in the movie “1942”?
While that's possible I don't know if it's the only option. I'm just guessing here, but the photographer could be in a large bay looking east.
No, they mean the observers are heading west, opposite of the plane's flight path.
This was all a mcguffin to make us forget about the timetraveller in the Charlie Chaplin film.
I think it was probably a buddy of mine getting ready for his colonoscopy. They say that magnesium sulfate bowel prep drink ain’t no joke.
My 3rd cousin’s college roommate’s moose-bitten sister wrote on her Facebook that her Uncle Freddy tweeted he saw it and it’s for real a plane - it was right after someone moved his cheese while he was in the shower and his beeber was in the shop from too much stunning. And he was logged in too.
I would have liked to see the speed at which the object moved. A missile launch would have gone up VERY quickly and would have been out of sight within 30 seconds.
And that is supposed to inspire confidence? I'm not buying this story. All we're hearing is "no, it wasn't a missile." OK... if not, WHAT???
The western sky in SoCal can play tricks on your eyes, bigtime. I believe it.
“If this is true, then please tell me what airline and what flight number. Waiting...”
US Airways 808 from Hawaii.
http://uncinus.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/4/#more-4
Ok, so if this was a commercial flight why were there no records of it, why is there no radar record of it? I call BS, it is plain that this was a missle launch and if it is a plane climbing out, where did it take off from? The point of origin is supposedly off the coast, do we have sea plane airliners?
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