Who Threw That? - Mystery US Missile Launch - or just a Contrail?
THE Pentagon was scrambling last night to discover who fired a missile off the Californian coast, 56km west of Los Angeles, without any warning.
The huge rocket, heading in a northwesterly direction, roughly parallel to the coastline, was captured on video by a television crew in a helicopter as it streaked skywards from an apparent launch platform in the Pacific Ocean.
The plume of smoke, which stretched thousands of feet into the sky, had all of the hallmarks of a missile launch from a submarine or ship. However, the Pentagon insisted that no military rocket launch had taken place.
In Fairness, several commentators suggest is was only an airplane contrail, and I tend to agree with them when you consider the illumination angle at Sunset and the fact that the "plume" does not have a dark base and a light top.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/11/09/california.contrails/index.html
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19704-mystery-missile-likely-a-jet-contrail-says-expert.html
