Mysterious Missile Lights Up Sky Off Coast Of Los Angeles, Military Refuses To Comment (VIDEO)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon said Tuesday it did not know what created a vapor trail that crossed the skies off the Southern California coast and resembled a missile launch.

Video posted on the CBS News website shows an object flying through the evening sky Monday that left a large contrail, or vapor trail. A news helicopter owned by KCBS, a CBS affiliate in Los Angeles, shot the video.

Pentagon officials were stumped by the event. "Nobody within the Department of Defense that we've reached out to has been able to explain what this contrail is, where it came from," Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said.

While the vapor cloud captured on video resembled that created by a rocket in flight, military officials said they didn't know of any launches in the area.

Lapan said that "all indications" were that the Defense Department was not involved with the object.

One expert called it an optical illusion. "It's an airplane that is heading toward the camera and the contrail is illuminated by the setting sun," said John Pike, director of the U.S.-based security analyst group globalsecurity.org.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, issued a statement jointly with the U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, saying that the contrail was not the result of a foreign military launching a missile. It provided no details.

"We can confirm that there is no threat to our nation," the statement said. "We will provide more information as it becomes available."

NORTHCOM is the U.S. defense command and NORAD is a U.S.-Canadian organization charged with protecting the U.S. from the threat of missiles or hostile aircraft.

Pike said the object could not have been a rocket because it appeared to alter its course.

"The local station chopped up the video and so it's hard to watch it continuously," Pike said. "But at one place you can see it has changed course - rockets don't do that."

Pike said he didn't understand why the military had not recognized the contrail of an aircraft. "The Air Force must ... understand how contrails are formed," he said. "Why they can't get some major out to belabor the obvious, I don't know."

Watch CBS's report below.

Comments

[JCCIII]

01:58 AM on 11/11/2010

MIT professor Theodore Postol, a trenchant critic of Pentagon antimissile programs [...],gave an extended rebuttal[...].'Saying to' the Christian Science Monitor, “It’s not an aircraft contrail.[...]It looks like a big missile,[...].”He told the newspaper that a review of the video shows twisting movements consistent with maneuvers that long-range ICBMs perform.[It]“has the spirals you would see in an advanced solid-rocket missile,.”

'Postol explained that the failure of FAA radar to detect the source of the contrail suggested that it was a missile[...]'.[...]he said, NORAD would certainly have detected a missile: “There is no doubt that the North American Air Defense Command early-warning satellites would observe this[...]”.

Naval analyst Raymond Pritchett told Wired.com, “When someone makes an unannounced launch what looks to be a ballistic missile 35 miles from the nation’s second largest city,[...]NORAD still doesn’t have any answers at all—that complete lack of information represents a credible threat to national security. If NORAD can’t answer[...],then I believe it is time to question every single penny of ballistic missile defense funding[...].”

'Doug Richardson, of Jane’s Missiles and Rockets, told the Times of London,' “It’s a solid propellant missile. You can tell from the efflux.”[Like a] ballistic missile launched from a submarine or an interceptor[...].

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/nov2010/miss-n11.shtml

Joseph C. Carbone III

[desertHeat1]

02:46 PM on 11/10/2010

In the first few seconds of the video there is what looks like a Chinook helicopter hovering over the ocean...why has there been no mention of this in any reporting?

Also the former Deputy SecDef interviewed in the video doesn't hesitate to call it "spectacular' and say "it IS a big missile". No hesitation at all.

Since the initial CBS report there has been a virtual media blackout. The LA Times even pulled the video and replaced it with a grainy picture.

If this was indeed a commercial airline LAX ATC would know EXACTLY who it was. Also, with the amount of air traffic around LA why was there no other similar "optical illusion" or "contrail"?

Pike said. "But at one place you can see it has changed course - rockets don't do that." The video is edited but from what is shown I see no "change in course."

I am not a conspiracy theorist but am skeptical by nature and the so called "explanations" put forth so far make little or no sense.

[Andrew McFarmland]

01:41 PM on 11/10/2010

Uh, did HP remove this post from direct view? I can't seem to find it anywhere (it used to be in the LA section)

[montae7]

02:25 PM on 11/10/2010

neither can I, wonder why they're trying to suppress it

[AMJ889]

01:25 PM on 11/10/2010

E.T.

[Bibulus]

01:25 PM on 11/10/2010

It was Carly Fiorina being launched from the California political landscape.

[cordyc]

01:20 PM on 11/10/2010

It's an airplane coming towards LA with a great contrail or the exploding heads of the GOP when they added up all the money they wasted trying to buy offices last week with defective candidates.

[GirlUsingBrain]

01:11 PM on 11/10/2010

Why didn't I see this? Wish I had looked up that day.

Don't know what it is but I am guessing that it is nothing dangerous. If it were an ICBM, wouldn't it have been fired from a submarine?

Kind of cool looking.

[SpookyOps73]

09:51 PM on 11/10/2010

GUB
ICBM's can be fired from subs, the acronym for a for that type of missile is SLBM. ICBM's can also be fired from fixed land-based silos, rail cars, and even road-mobile missile launchers. As I said earlier today, this launch appears to be a big multi-stage booster, capable of travelling thousands of miles. There is no way the launch of a missile this size could go undetected, particularily inside the CONUS. I am not into consp-iracies, I am however a realist and this even appears to have been very real.

[qoftu]

01:11 PM on 11/10/2010

ET went home.

[lletaa]

01:01 PM on 11/10/2010

I've lived in L.A. all my life. I've seen DOZENS of these. Vandenberg air force base is north of L.A. and they test missiles all the time. Whats the mystery???

[RagdeSitum]

01:14 PM on 11/10/2010

The missile was launched from the ocean, north of Catalina, over a hundred miles south of Vandenberg AFB and 50 miles south of Pt. Mugu NB. It wasn't one of ours.

[PoliSci2008]

01:36 PM on 11/10/2010

I still say it's business as usual with our covert testings by the Dept of Defense, Navy, CIA, take your pick. Just b/c our govt won't acknowledge it, don't mean they don't know anything about.

Alternatively, a prelude to 12-21-2012!!!

[JB-IN]

12:36 PM on 11/10/2010

One thing omitted from the article, what sound did it make??

If anyone who has actually seen a rocket launch, LIVE and not on TV, they could tell you right away that this was NO ROCKET launch. Most obviously, the exaust glow from a rocket would be about 1000 times brighter than the "glint" seen coming off the object at the tip of this contrail, AND it would be constant, not intermittent. Additionally, if you are close enough to see it, you are close enough to hear it. There is no mistaking the sound of a rocket for the sound of a distant jet airliner. NO COMPARISON.

[RagdeSitum]

01:17 PM on 11/10/2010

Except that corkscrew contrails are characteristic of ballistic missiles as they need to be spun to maintain stability (like the rifling on a barrel imparts spin to a bullet).

[PoliSci2008]

01:37 PM on 11/10/2010

Excellent point, and I didn't hear a thing.

[montae7]

02:28 PM on 11/10/2010

it was mot lily a missile launched from a sub

[JScott]

11:43 AM on 11/10/2010

airline contrail

[StevenK3]

11:25 AM on 11/10/2010

C'mon folks...wake up a bit..Here's the facts:

The Pentagon says it wasn't a missile...and Jane's Military Intelligence, perhaps the premier military weapons evaluator in the world...said it was definitely a missile...no doubt about it...
the efflux (contrail) indicated solid propellant boosting ...to their esteemed eyes...
Now, has anyone here heard of the new Russian corporation called Morinformsystem Concern-AGAT? Google it if not. They have a new weapon for sale. The Club-k. It is a common looking, 40' marine shipping container..that clandestinely contains 4 large ballistic missiles, guided by GPS. In light of the Pentagon making gibberish on this event, I say that the sighting could have been a 'marketing' effort by the Russian company...and it is certainly effective. I don't think that our military is simply 'shrugging this one off'...because they had better not. It would look
pretty stupid to Jane's. Check out the video on the Concern-agat website

[GirlUsingBrain]

01:22 PM on 11/10/2010

Russia launching missiles within our nautical boundaries?

Here in CA we were told it came from 35 miles NE of Catalina Island. Catalina Island is 26 miles west of the coast.

If this were military in nature, there would be a great deal of scrambling going on right now off the CA coast and that is not happening.

It is rather exciting and entertaining to think this is some mysterious, clandestine event but I think some imaginations are running on high right now.

[elkhawk]

01:24 PM on 11/10/2010

I agree. Everyone thinks they have an answer and the answers usually scream conspiracy theory. I am a conspiracy nut, but even I feel that this is nothing to be worried about.

[RagdeSitum]

01:30 PM on 11/10/2010

Nautical boundaries extend at most 22 miles. They launched from international waters.

[Andrew McFarmland]

04:56 PM on 11/10/2010

Do you have a link for the Jane's Military Intelligence reference?

[Adrian Rowe]

11:15 AM on 11/10/2010

I like to think a submarine was lost and sent up a reaaaaaaallllly big flare gun. Someone find those guys! They're lost and hungry.

And sorry, anyone with access to youtube and can tell this isn't a D5 Launch.

[GirlUsingBrain]

01:23 PM on 11/10/2010

I vote for this "explanation"!

[aflutterbug]

09:28 AM on 11/10/2010

Awl, come on missile lovers, think about it. Despite what your eyes are telling you, a missile makes no sense.

It's not some secret government test. A secret government missile test wouldn't be launched in plain view of Los Angeles.

And it's extremely doubtful we launched by accident and lied about it. From where? A nuclear submarine off the coast of Los Angeles? And where'd it go? And why isn't Russia freaking out about our nuclear security? Why is Obama still on his trip as if nothing is happening?

And if a foreign power snuck a submarine off the coast of LA and fired off a missle, don't you think we'd respond? I realize Obama took 1/2 the navy with him on his trip (giggle), but you'd think we'd be looking for that sub and totally freaking out militarily.

But no, the various military services said "no, not ours," and no one tracked any outgoing missiles.

Sooooooo... airplane. Very rare "perfect storm" of optical effects yes, but... airplane. Google around, you'll find other incidents where contrails were mistaken for missiles.

[CDRUSNret]

10:11 AM on 11/10/2010

You sir/ma'am are a reasonable thinker. Thanks for the post!

[TOS100]

10:45 AM on 11/10/2010

Yes. A contrail with a glowing tip. For some reason.

[blingladen]

08:50 AM on 11/10/2010

The planet's in such bad shape, even the aliens are leaving.
Or - as Pentagon will no doubt soon claim - it was a weather balloon.

[PoliSci2008]

01:43 PM on 11/10/2010

LOL, Thank You fo rthe good laugh this morning!