Missile Mystery and More: Strange Sky Sightings

A possible missile launch off the coast of Southern California Monday is the latest in a string of incidents this year where people looked up and, well, had absolutely no idea what they were looking at.

As NORAD confirms that a video shot by CBS affiliate KCBS showing an object shooting over the sky and leaving a large contrail is "no threat to our nation," let's take a look back at events of the last year that left those gazing upwards scratching their heads:

Manhattan UFOs

On the afternoon of Oct. 13, silvery objects floating over the Chelsea neighborhood in Manhattan prompted a flood of calls to police and the FAA.

Experts later determined that the floating objects were most likely party balloons that escaped from an engagement party in Westchester County, north of the city.

Even UFO experts were dismissive of the validity of the sighting.

"It had the flavor of a cluster of balloons, in my opinion," Peter Davenport, director of the National UFO Reporting Center, a private research group based in Washington, told the New York Post.

Secret Robot Space Plane

In April, the United States Air Force's X-37B robotic space plane blasted off from Florida - but the mission remained a mystery.

The unmanned vehicle is expected to take months testing new spacecraft technologies.

The classified nature of the Air Force project caused some to speculate that it could signal the Sky Spiral in NorwayA failed Russian missile launch in December caused a spiral of white light visible in Norway that many citizens mistook for a UFO."It consisted initially of a green beam of light similar in color to the aurora with a mysterious rotating spiral at one end. This spiral then got bigger and bigger until it turned into a huge halo in the sky with the green beam extending down to Earth," Nick Banbury of Harstad told Spaceweather.com.

An iPhone in Space

In October, Brooklyn dad Luke Geissbuhler and his 7-year-old son Max sent a homemade satellite - an iPhone and a HD camera attached to a weather balloon - into space.

It traveled 19 miles above earth, where the balloon popped and sent it back to earth - slowed by a parachute. GPS and the camera's LED light helped them find it about 30 miles from the launch site.

Watch video of the story below:

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karek40 says:: With all the take of those of middle eastern background coming across our southern boarders, is there any chance these are the same type missles that are being used against Israel?; reply

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TeamAV says:: uh1cobra- I understand perspective, but do a little comparison. You can surely find videos online of rocket launches and contrails. You will see the difference and what I referred to as the base indicating a launch. When you mention "missile" and "rocket" launches being very fast you are only considering smaller devices. An ICBM launches similar to a satellite or the space shuttle. Slow at first with lots of smoke billowing out in a concentrated area and then accellerating and gaining altitude. It is likely this object was well above 30,000 feet and traveling in excess of mach 1 when the film was made. The distance and altitude make the object appear to move slowly. You're entitled to your own opinion... the technology we're discussing and the people behind it gurantee that, but don't assume this is a unique contrail from an aircraft when pretty much every aircraft that flies at altitude has the same characteristics.

Also, consider the secretive missile launch over China a few months ago. This activity has increased in recent years and I assume it will continue. Don't be surprised if you end up seeing one yourself. Good Hunting uh1cobra.; reply

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NeilUnixo says:: Also I should add that I did NOT see the event on Monday that everyone is speculating about. Both of my sightings were at night.; reply

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NeilUnixo says:: Here is something for everyone to think about. I live in Newbury Park, CA (check the location on Google Maps). My backyard faces due west. I didn't even know about this story until yesterday when I saw it on this site. About a month ago I was in my yard at about 8 or 9pm with a friend. We were talking and he saw something over my shoulder and said "Hey check that out, what is that?" I look over and I see what can only be described and a large exhaust cone flame. It was no doubt a rocket going straight up. It slowly started to turned to the left and fly straight parallel with the ground. After about 30 seconds or so we saw a puff of smoke which might have been a second stage or something and then the 'object' continued on heading to the left which would be South.

Me and my friend didnt think much of it because Vandenburg Air Force base sometimes has launches. Anyway some time goes by and just last week, I think it was Monday or Tuesday last week before this story broke and I saw it again. I called my other room mate over to see it. It was the same story. Straight up then over to the left (south).

I am sure these are rockets. The direction it was coming from seems to be San Nicloas Island but I cant be sure. Just speculation. I just wish our government would stop playing dumb and give us some reasonable explanation so we can move on from this instead of making a mystery out of it.; reply

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bonoho says:: i am also a pilot,in all my years of flying never saw an contrail like this. look close and you will see a firery centre. at high or low altetude if it is a yet, with 2 ore 4 engines a seperation of your contrail is visible and not a extreme, large bulky one as seen in the report.
some one is trying very hard to discredit the report.coming to think of we are all blind and will beleive anything. but then what's new, it has been going on as long as i can remember. back to be a mushroom and listen to more BS.; reply

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bonoho says:: i am also a pilot,in all my years of flying never saw an contrail like this. look close and you will see a firery centre. at high or low altetude if it is a yet, with 2 ore 4 engines a seperation of your contrail is visible and not a extreme, large bulky one as seen in the report.
some one is trying very hard to discredit the report.coming to think of we are all blind and will beleive anything. but then what's new, it has been going on as long as i can remember. back to be a mushroom and listen to more BS.; reply

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uh1cobra says:: How many people on this forum actually live in Los Angeles? I have lived here my entire life and I fly here in Los Angeles and I wonder why it is with all the commercial and military airline traffic that not one single pilot or person on an airliner bound for Los Angeles that evening noticed this. There are many many flights crossing Los Angeles at that time flying in all directions and definitely leaving Los Angeles departing out over the Pacific so it seems very funny that not one pilot nor passenger on any airliner seems to have caught this so called missile launch. The other thing is how many people jump on the band wagon to call this a missile, had the new copter not mentioned the word MISSILE then this would not even be a topic and for those of you that say the helicopter pilot knows his position and is a pilot therefore he should know what he is talking about is pure nonsense pilots mess up all the time they are human remember. The pilot was flying the helicopter and the Cameraman is the one that actually saw the contrail. Have any of you actually witnessed a missile or rocket launch firsthand? They are very fast even the smaller missiles with less velocity and range, This was moving very slow and ONLY for the angle that the news camera shot it at did it appear to look anything like a missile launch, every other vantage point and it was just another airliner contrail, no big deal. Again the problem here is misinformation and the loose use of the work Missile on the news that is very bad news in my judgement. The news should only point out a fact not give information based on what a single person thinks. A better cameraman would have filmed the object and left it at that, that it was an unusual object that is unidentified at this time and needs to be looked into further instead of going for gold and stating that there was a missile launch for the pacific near los angeles, just poor reporting. TeamAV so given that you are a Pilot you should understand weather phenomena, the human perspective right, always trust your instruments because your eyes and mind can lie to you, remember that in school. We all view things differently people see what they want to see and I guess I just see a airline contrail and not a missile. I only pointed out my perspective on what information I had available to me and its all from that CBS chopper camera view I wish there were other views available to put this all to rest but that just would be fun for the rest of the people out there that still believe this was a missile. If the helicopter cameraman had said that he saw a giant sausage flying through the air with a fiery contrail then we would all be discussing that in this forum. Safe Flying TeamAV. uh1cobra; reply

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sandimas123 says:: at about 9:30pm monday (11/8) night, i called in something falling from the sky on fire to the san dimas police department. if you go south on valley center in san dimas till valley center ends, and then make a left, the object landed somewhere in there. it was on fire and then about a mile before it hit the ground, the fire went out. i told everybody at work the next day and they asked if i had heard the news of the mystery missile, which I hadn't. any thoughts on the probability that it could be correlated? i had just figured it was a piece of luggage from an airplane.; reply

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010sonny says:: Surmise that we will see more of these events as republicans once again gain control of our forces. Note right after election. ?Day the earth stood still? on the way. Observe South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham proclaimed in his speech in Canada ? We should sink Iran?s Navy? ! Just guess where republicans are heading for. Well at least we?ll know where our children are.; reply

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TeamAV says:

uh1cobra... I am a pilot and I know contrails. This is no contrail. There are no upper level winds playing on the contrail causing it to spread. The larger base of the trail is caused by the slower moving rocket after launch. After the rocket/missile is launched and picks up speed less smoke is dispersed by area/time. This is a launch of some sort. Most likely a Trident missile launch (ICBM) from a submarine as stated by the former deputy defense secretary. Frankly, I'm glad we have this technology and I don't care if they tell us about it, but it'd be a nice heads up if this was a Russian/Chinese sub flexing it's muscles. My point is that this is ABSOLUTELY a missile launch. NOT a jet. NOT contrails.


010sonny replies:: linkicon reporticon emailicon; I have to agree. A rocket made those trails. Disagree that it was a Russian sub. It was one of Iran's sub ! Their reply to Sen. Lindsey Graham statments in Canada that we need to sink Iran's navy.