Is somebody firing ICBMs off the coast of Calif.?

[Chesapeake]

This is weird.

www.aolnews.com/surge-desk/article/mystery-missile-lights-up-los-angeles-skies/19709162

[paulschlimm]

Saw that. FAA says they didn't get anything in RADAR.

Somewhere, some missile sub XO is saying to his boss, "Skipper, you're going to HAVE to tell them what happened!"

[billhammond]

Nov 9, 2010 17:35:51 GMT -5 @paulschlimm said:

Saw that. FAA says they didn't get anything in RADAR.

Somewhere, some missile sub XO is saying to his boss, "Skipper, you're going to HAVE to tell them what happened!"

Take Your Kid to Work Day on the USS Belchfire. "Wait, kid, DON'T TOUCH THAT!"

[Supertramp78]

I think this story will eventually end up with the phrase "was relieved of his command" somewhere in there.

[billhammond]

Nov 9, 2010 17:39:51 GMT -5 Supertramp78 said:

I think this story will eventually end up with the phrase "was relieved of his command" somewhere in there.

Either that or there is some very well financed arm of the Tea Party located in SoCal.

[Cornflake]

At least there wasn't a mushroom cloud at the end of the incident.

[billhammond]

UPDATE:

That mystery “missile” launched last night off of the coast of Los Angeles? It probably wasn’t a missile at all, several leading defense analysts say.

The various arms of the U.S. military scrambled this morning to explain the creepy footage, snapped by a CBS news helicopter, of what appeared to be a missile flying into the air, not far from Los Angeles. U.S. Strategic Command, Northern Command, Air Force Space Command, Air Force Global Strike Command, the Navy and the Missile Defense Agency were all left struggling to give an answer for what appeared to be a rogue ICBM. But to GlobalSecurity.org director John Pike, there’s an easy explanation: “It is obviously an airplane.”

“The aircraft is flying towards the observer; the air over the Pacific is clear, so the contrail is visible all the way to the horizon. This creates the optical illusion of a rocket flying up, rather than the actual situation of an airplane flying horizontally,” Pike tells Danger Room. “The object generating the contrail is moving too slowly to be a rocket; the contrail is not expanding as the ‘rocket’ gains ‘altitude’ — which would be the case as the exhaust plume expanding into less dense high altitude air.”

MIT astronomer Jonathan McDowell tells New Scientist pretty much the same thing. Although he does note that the Navy owns a missile target and launch facility at nearby San Nicolas Island.

This wouldn’t be the first time a plane was mistaken for a missile. On New Year’s Eve, an aircraft was photographed above San Clemente, California, looking eerily missile-esque. In December, 2008, there was a similar case of mistaken identity when a plane flew near the coastal town of Carmel.

“The short explanation is that we don’t see a lot of jet contrails head-on, especially from the vantage point of a helicopter. So, it looks like a missile to everyone else,” writes Danger Room alum (and New America Foundation analyst) Jeffrey Lewis. “But it probably isn’t.”

He adds, “That would explain why no one else in L.A. saw a missile launch other than the helicopter crew — or, rather, why everyone else from every other angle saw a typical jet contrail — and why [America's missile-warning system] didn’t light up like a Christmas Tree.”

[billhammond]

That explanation works completely for me. I, too, was wondering why the climb was so slow.

Hilarious, really, that it took a TV news crew in a helicopter to capture a story that wasn't one.

[Supertramp78]

He adds, “That would explain why no one else in L.A. saw a missile launch other than the helicopter crew — or, rather, why everyone else from every other angle saw a typical jet contrail — and why [America's missile-warning system] didn’t light up like a Christmas Tree.”


ding! we have a winner in the logical thinking award

[paulschlimm]

Ahhhh. On another note, whoever let the word "missile-esque" into the story should have the funk'n wagnall beat out of them.

[billhammond]

THIS IS REALLY HILARIOUS!

Listen to all this bullshit!


www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyEvk-VTuEI


Ellsworth was right about one thing: "It's not a Tomahawk."

[Chesapeake]

We'll know the airplane theory is wrong when word comes that Pyonyang has evaporated.

[dradtke]

Thanks for posting the conspiracy theory debunking, Bill, as if we buy it for a minute. My bet is on Captain Nemo.