Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Mystery Missile Launch Seen off Calif. Coast

This image captured by a KCBS News helicopter shows an unidentified projectile launched from an unknown point in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Los Angeles, Nov. 8, 2010.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.

"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.

via Mystery Missile Launch Seen off Calif. Coast - CBS News.












... The first impression was that it was a missile that has been shot but no wing of the defense forces have been able to confirm that they had anything to do with it. The NORAD as well as the NORTHCOM have denied having to do anything with this incidence either. From all sources it seems like the whole missile deal is not real after all. But how it would have left a contrail over Pacific waters remains answered.

The next possibility that seems to arise is that of it being nothing more than an optical illusion as would be confirmed by John Pike. Pike is an expert in defense and directs GlobalSecurity.org. According to him the recent video could be nothing but an illusion to the naked eye and the whole contrail thing is nothing but that of a plane.

He has confirmed beyond doubt that the contrail is that of an aero plane and it could not have been otherwise. He explains that the whole event had been set up and it was a plane heading towards the direction of the camera and nothing else. He explains that the speed at which the contrail travels is not even close to that of a rocket.

The rocket contrail would be visible over a few hundred miles when exposed to light. A source at NORTHCOM seconded that view with CNN as well. However, when it is a flying object that we are talking about, it is hard to rule out the possibility of an UFO as that has really caught the imagination of the nation of late.

via Lanewsmonitor

Comment on ATS:
I can't get on board with the contrail theory yet. Guaranteed that thousands of airplanes fly towards people with cameras everyday, yet we don't see this type of story all the time. Gonna suck someday when a missile is cruising toward the homeland and people brush it off as an airplane contrail.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) confirmed Tuesday that an apparent missile launch off the southern coast of California was not a threat to the U.S., as the U.S. Navy and NASA both denied involvement in the incident.

“NORAD and U.S. Northcom [United States Northern Command] are aware of the unexplained contrail reported off the coast of southern California yesterday evening,” NORAD said in a statement, according to Fox News Channel. “At this time we are unable to provide specific details, but we are working to determine the exact nature of this event. We can confirm that there is no indication of any threat to our nation and we will provide more information as it becomes available."

The statement came as the Navy confirmed to Fox News Channel that the incident “was not associated with any Navy operation,” while a NASA spokesman said the apparent missile launch was not a satellite launch or a satellite re-entry. NASA also said it was investigating whether the incident was a meteorite but said that was unlikely.

A spokesman for NORAD and NORTHCOM told Fox News the US was “confident this was not fired from foreign military.”

Separately, a military official told Fox the U.S. was getting close to determining the cause and would have an explanation for the bizarre incident soon.

The Pentagon said earlier Tuesday that the incident remained “unexplained” and that its mysterious origins meant that it was not possible to rule out any threat to the homeland, Fox News Channel reported.

Pentagon Spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said the incident did not appear to be a regularly scheduled test, since no warnings to mariners or airmen appeared to be issued ahead of its launch.

The contrail was caught on camera by a KCBS news helicopter at around sunset Monday evening, approximately 35 miles out to sea and west of Los Angeles.

ContrailScience.com, a website that debunks conspiracy theories linked to contrails, suggested the sighting was an optical illusion, AFP reported. It said a contrail streaming horizontally from the exhaust of an approaching aircraft can look like a vertical missile shot if the end of the plume is hidden by the curvature of the earth.

The missile appeared to be launched from the water, and not from US soil, Lapan added.

via Myfox

"The FAA ran radar replays of a large area west of Los Angeles based on media reports of the possible missile launch at approximately 5 p.m. (PT) on Monday. The radar replays did not reveal any fast moving, unidentified targets in that area," said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor. "The FAA did not receive reports ... of unusual sightings from pilots who were flying in the area on Monday afternoon.

via CNN (with video)

You can see either a rocket plume or reflection of the jet. So, where did it eventually go? If it was a jet, what flight was it?

4 comments:

Cheng said...

Wot? No alien UFO theories?
I remember a time when the web would be thick with confused, impractical theories. They don't make UFO worshippers like they used to.

Pyrodin said...

Ehh, people are getting desensitized to aliens....Heard somewhere it might have been a show of force from China, in response to the 600 billion "Quantitative Easing" scheme. Guess we'll have to wait and see what happens.

Peace

Ann said...

Ha! Just as people are getting desensitized to aliens, the U.S. military is getting hyper-sensitized to them with claims that they're possibly threatening.

It's necessary, of course, to propagate this possible threat, as the military has done through various low-key, but popular channels on the internet, because it must gather the popular support, and subsequent Congressional funding, in a "free and democratic society" for the increased militarization and weaponization of space.

Cheng said...

Perhaps it's the deployment scheme for the quantative easing. Look up everybody, $600 billion is about to fall from the sky. Woohoo!