Who said it was always vertical ? The flight was arcing westward. We have no idea what altitude it reached.
But funny how no pilots noted a large missile launch in the area.
There were flight restrictions near to that area and near to that time. Some debate going on currently on exactly how close to the launch point the flight warnings were. But since we do not know launch point or vehicle, we can at least assume pilots were expecting something nearby.
No, you don’t get it, launches look the same to people viewing to the N and the S. Contrails don’t, when you see a contrail head on, it looks like its climbing straight up, at an angle N or S, it looks like an ordinary contrail.
I’ve seen launches from PHX and from north of San Diego. I’ve seen more contrails than you can imagine at sunset as I set up my telescope. There are NO reports of any ionized cloud from this. NONE. I’ve flown from Hawaii to Phoenix dozens of times, usually overnight, but we always fly the same corridor to cross the mainland, and its always in the same spot that US808 was.
I don’t see a single ounce of proof that it was a missile, nothing.
Then it's far simpler. Views from the north that show it going eastward with time.
There were flight restrictions near to that area and near to that time.
Doesn't matter whether there were restrictions posted or not, there were commercial aircraft flying through the area on schedule, and they were picked up and plotted on the radar records.
Adjust your theory to fit facts, not the other way around.