Lay people with brains and decades of first-hand sightings of missile launchs as well as airplane contrails, non-lay aviation and missile professionals with brains, and people who are close to them, generally (with some exceptions) look at the video -- not still photos, which tell you very little, but actual moving video -- and conclude that it was, indeed, a missile launch.
The cameraman who shot the video is either deliberately perpetrating a hoax AND lying outright in his description of the event, OR he is a blithering moron if he, after 11 years of filming LA skies via helicopter and using very high-quality lenses to see what he's looking at, cannot tell a commercial airliner contrail from a missile launch.
Frankly, that a guy like the camerman couldn't tell the difference is a hell of a lot more far-fetched than the missile shot scenario. Less far-fetched is the possibility that he's lying and deliberately manipulated the video to look like a missile shot.
Either way, we have seen arrogance on high display here among people who assume an immense amount of stupidity and ineptness on the part of pretty qualified folks who openly state their opinion that the video showed a missile launch.
The vapor trail is HUGE. Thanks for your input.
Which brings to mind motives.
Well, hopefully it will be determined inconclusively what it was, so we can separate the idiots from the people with brains.
we have seen arrogance on high display here among people who assume an immense amount of stupidity and ineptness on the part of pretty qualified folks who openly state their opinion that the video showed a missile launch.