Missile Launch off California coast - Pentagon has no clue

[warhed]

For those who can't figure out why people jumped to conclusions, here's an article explaining why it was perfectly logical to assume it was a real missile launch.

LOS ANGELES, June 29 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Air Force test fired an intercontinental missile from a base west of Santa Barbara in Southern California early on Monday.

    The launch produced a spectacle that could be visible in Los Angeles, San Diego and the Inland Empire.

    The Minuteman 3 was fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base during a six-hour window that started at 3:01 a.m., carrying three unarmed re-entry vehicles that hit their targets near the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, some 4,200 miles (6,720 kilometers) away, the Air Force said.

    It said the launch was an operational test to check the weapon system's reliability and accuracy.

    Test data will be used by United States Strategic Command planners and Department of Energy laboratories.

    Such rocket tests in past years have been visible over most of Southern California, and occasionally as far east as Tucson, Arizona. The rockets can cause a glowing exhaust trail that can get blown into strange shapes by upper-atmosphere winds.

    In addition, unburned fuel dumped into the atmosphere can form a colorful glow in a dark sky as sunlight reaches the upper atmosphere. These strange occurrences have triggered thousands of calls to police switchboards in years past.

    Monday's launch will mark the last time that the Air Force Space Command will be in charge of such tests. Its function has been absorbed by the newly-created Global Strike Command, according to earlier press reports.

    A handful of anti-nuclear weapon activists staged a picket outside Vandenberg's gates as the missile was fired.

[mbailey]

It was America West Flight 808 Honolulu to Phoenix. Oh look, here it comes again the next day at the same time.
(Image removed from quote.)

Glad they run a tight ship at Secret Missile Launch HQ, errr I mean America West Airlines! 

Well Ill be......crazy stuff.  I was kinda hoping for supersonic swampgas, but this makes more sence 

[warhed]

Well Ill be......crazy stuff.  I was kinda hoping for supersonic swampgas, but this makes more sence 

An honestly curious question, are you aware the military launches (notifying the public) missiles off the coast of SoCal that are easily viewed from the same area as the suspected contrail sighting?

I trust the government's decision on this one, but also know a secret test that wound up being not so secret would be denied/covered up (hopefully).

[dedalos]

For those who can't figure out why people jumped to conclusions, here's an article explaining why it was perfectly logical to assume it was a real missile launch.

Oh no, I know exactly why people jumped to conclusions     Darwin is probably twisting in his grave every time something like this happens

[Penguin]

Something to ponder:

An aircraft flying at 30,000 ft, 200 miles away is actually below the horizon (you know, that whole 1492, Columbus, round-Earth thingie), so if the aircraft is flying towards an observer on the ground, it's contrail appears to originate from the ground. But to a ground observer adjacent to the flight path, it's just another airplane.

IMHO just another slow news day on the Left Coast 

Now that's insight! 

-Penguin

[mbailey]

An honestly curious question, are you aware the military launches (notifying the public) missiles off the coast of SoCal that are easily viewed from the same area as the suspected contrail sighting? 

I trust the government's decision on this one, but also know a secret test that wound up being not so secret would be denied/covered up (hopefully).

Neg.....Im on the East coast, and i agree w/your 2nd statement completely.

[Cthulhu]

It was America West Flight 808 Honolulu to Phoenix. Oh look, here it comes again the next day at the same time.
(Image removed from quote.)

Glad they run a tight ship at Secret Missile Launch HQ, errr I mean America West Airlines! 

Thanks rpm, this whole silly thing has gotten way too much air play.

[flight17]

just found this interesting site:

"Jet contrails from some angles look like missile trails"
http://uncinus.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/4/#more-4

the pic that they say its heading torwards you discredited that site for me. contrails dont from from scattered to solid, they go from a solid tight line into a scattered fluffy line...

[Golfer]

the pic that they say its heading torwards you discredited that site for me. contrails dont from from scattered to solid, they go from a solid tight line into a scattered fluffy line...

That isn't always true.

[redman555]

I am 100% positive that was a missile launch...why you ask?  The FAA said that NIGHT that there was no aircraft in that area.  Then 60 hours later the pentagon says it was a 747 going from Hawaii to Seattle....I mean come on really?


-BigBOBCH

[Golfer]

Cite your source, Bigbob.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AWE808/history/20101108/1955Z/PHNL/KPHX

That shows the track over the ground.  This next one will give you lat/long/altitude of that airplane on that flight.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AWE808/history/20101108/1955Z/PHNL/KPHX/tracklog

According to that at 5pm PT the airplane was at the location of the pushpin on this map:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=33.3N+118.75W&sll=40.052597,-75.64184&sspn=0.007868,0.013711&ie=UTF8&ll=33.344296,-118.43811&spn=2.197946,3.510132&z=8&iwloc=A

Then the next night, the same flight showed up the same way at the same place.  Pretty amazing, eh?

[Yeager]

The thing that threw me off was the fact that every time I have ever viewed a contrail magnified I could always make out more than one point of origin (engine's) of the contrail.  That and the dispersal of the gasses typically starts at a given point back in the vapor trial then tapers off more and more quickly farther back and then largely dissipates.

This contrail was quite a bit different from any that I have ever seen.  It also gave a distinct single tube like appearance, more in line with what one would see from a rocket motor.

Contrary to this dolt named dedalios who thinks everyone but him is an idiot, this thing was odd enough, one-off enough, to have caught a lot of peoples attention and apparently, imagination.  

Glad it turned out harmless, more or less

[warhed]

Oh no, I know exactly why people jumped to conclusions     Darwin is probably twisting in his grave every time something like this happens

Please explain what is so far-fetched to you about this story?
Do you not understand the military actually does test missiles in the exact same area off the coast?
Not to mention they have denied launches before only to admit to them later.

You should do a little research of missile testing off the coast of Southern California, you would understand why people believe this was a launch.

[redman555]

Cite your source, Bigbob.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AWE808/history/20101108/1955Z/PHNL/KPHX

That shows the track over the ground.  This next one will give you lat/long/altitude of that airplane on that flight.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AWE808/history/20101108/1955Z/PHNL/KPHX/tracklog

According to that at 5pm PT the airplane was at the location of the pushpin on this map:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=33.3N+118.75W&sll=40.052597,-75.64184&sspn=0.007868,0.013711&ie=UTF8&ll=33.344296,-118.43811&spn=2.197946,3.510132&z=8&iwloc=A

Then the next night, the same flight showed up the same way at the same place.  Pretty amazing, eh?

Golfer, the FAA said there was NO AIRCRAFT, and it took the pentagon SIXTY HOURS to say what aircraft it was......  How do you know the pentagon didn't put that there? 

-BigBOBCH

[BlueJ1]

<Insert picture of Bagdad bob here>

"We have beaten the americans out of Iraq and are now launching missiles at their country with the subs we captured from them."