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.
And also what you said at the end of your post.
Honestly, I’ll have to research the JAL incident and I’ll send you an email with my best guess. From what you describe, I’m sure I’ll be as stumped as you are.
I totally agree about the clumsy and poorly worded responses from the government. At times, responses like these can be an indicator of something amiss. But this feels, to me at least, like simply a clumsy response. ‘We don;t know, but it isn’t a threat’ can be both an utterly ridiculous and utterly true statement at the same time.
We’ll see, hopefully...
Bump.
I’m sorry,
I have nothing useful to add to the issue.
Lots more questions than answers.
Seems like there’s lots of flags on lots of plays . . . lots of skullduggery going on.
If it went off AND they don’t want to talk about it, can we assume it went off by mistake...
Did you watch the video....did you see the missile exhaust?
No?
I thought so.
re your tagline: ever see Dark Star?
No, but I just looked it up, sounds intriguing, thanks!
WOW,cool the kids are out tonight,i feel so much safer....
If it were a missile shooting up at high speeds, where are the other pilots that must have been in the area?
How come we haven’t heard of any “Holy Sh!t” tapes from ATC in the area?
Where are the 911 calls?
Where are the comments from people that were on other planes (passengers, crew, etc.)
Were there any other GA planes flying in the area at the time?
Were there any ships/private boats anywhere on the water nearby that would have heard the roar?
I have no idea what this was, but the normal things that draw people to the media are not happening. Where are the crowds of people trying to get their fifteen minutes?
Makes me think it is more contrail than it is ICBM.
Full DoD statement per the boys over at Information Dissemination blog:
DoD statement attributed to Col. Dave Lapan, DoD spokesman.
While there is nothing at this time that leads the Department of Defense to believe this is a missile launch, the department and other US government agencies with expertise in aviation and space continue to look into the condensation trail (CONTRAIL) seen and reported off the coast of southern California on Monday evening.
All DoD entities with rocket and missile programs reported no launches, scheduled or inadvertent, during the time period in the area of the reported contrail. NORAD and USNORTHCOM confirmed that it did not monitor any foreign military missile launch off the California coast yesterday and has determined that there was no threat to the US homeland.
In addition, the FAA ran radar replays from Monday afternoon of a large area west of Los Angeles. Those replays did not reveal any fast-moving, unidentified targets. The FAA also did not receive reports of any unusual sightings from pilots who were flying in the area Monday afternoon.
If any new information comes to light in the coming days, we will update the press and public.
http://www.informationdissemination.net/2010/11/update-from-northcom-on-mystery.html#disqus_thread
Kinda looks that way.....
FAA Launch Notice To Airmen (NOTAM)
KZLA LOS ANGELES (ARTCC)PALMDALE, CA.
A2832/10 - THE FOLLOWING RESTRICTIONS ARE REQUIRED DUE TO NAVAL AIR WARFARE CENTER WEAPONS DIVISION ACTIVATION OF W537. IN THE INTEREST OF SAFETY, ALL NON-PARTICIPATING PILOTS ARE ADVISED TO AVOID W537. IFR TRAFFIC UNDER ATC JURISDICTION SHOULD ANTICIPATE CLEARANCE AROUND W537 AND CAE 1176. CAE 1155 WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE FOR OCEANIC TRANSITION. CAE 1316 & CAE 1318 WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE FOR OCEANIC TRANSITION. CAE 1177 WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR OCEANIC TRANSITION. W537 ACTIVE, CAE 1176 CLOSED. SURFACE - FL390, 09 NOV 20:00 2010 UNTIL 10 NOV 01:00 2010. CREATED: 08 NOV 20:52 2010
https://pilotweb.nas.faa.gov/PilotWeb/notamRetrievalByICAOAction.do?method=displayByICAOs
Second try Result
Error Encountered while processing
NOTAM Retrieval
An error occurred while processing this function. Please close this window and try again. If the problem persists, please contact NAIMES Technical Support at 1-866-466-1336 or (703) 326-3905 with the function name and message below.
Type of Failure: Application Error Encountered
Third Try NOTAM Scrubed
Home
About PilotWeb
Help
Contact Us
Wed, 10 Nov 2010 01:49:35 (UTC)
FAA Home
NOTAM Functions
Tracks
Tools
Disclaimer
NOTAM Request for Accountability or Location: KZLA and NOTAM Number: A2832/10
________________________________________
Data Current as of: Wed, 10 Nov 2010 01:49:00 UTC
________________________________________
The NOTAM does not exist.
FAA removed NOTAM, You SEE nothing, there is nothing here for you move along.
For those having trouble parsing the NOTAM, the times are GMT for noon today through tomorrow evening.
Please explain the relevance of this. I don’t understand.
That’s what I thought from the beginning. I don’t think we have enemy subs off our coast (unless one wants to characterize any equipment that zero is the CiC of as “enemy” (;), at least not yet. I also think the military don’t want the world to know that we had a little ... er..... slip.... in our operations.
It gave me a bit of a jolt to look at the numbers of that date. This missile thing is disturbing, and it reminds me of the very disputable events around the downing of TWA800.
LOL. Good one.
That was an interesting NOTAM...........thanks for digging it up before it vanished.
If a NOTAM was released for a missile launch, and especially a ballistic, then it would state ‘MISSILE’ or ‘UNMANNED MISSILE’. The Naval Air Warfare center NOTAMs are nothing unusual.
http://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/ntm/not0601.html
Colonel Lapin from the Pentagon has already stated that there was no DOD involvement. You don’t create a NOTAM for a missile launch, fire it and then deny it took place! Russian space based infra-red detection would have picked up said ballistic launch. Explain why the Russians are not commenting on this claimed unannounced launch from the US?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.