"Missile Mystery" Laid to Rest

It sure looked like a missile, leaving a trail of smoke on its journey to who-knows-where, high over the Pacific Ocean off southern California.

CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports that 36 hours after the video of the mystery missile went viral, the Pentagon, with all its satellites, radars and command centers, finally put it to rest. Sort of.

(Scroll down to watch the visual evidence)

"All of those factors together leave us pretty confident that this was a CONTRAIL caused by an aircraft," says Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Col. Dave Lapan.

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Pretty confident the CONTRAIL - short for condensation trail - was left by a jet airliner. That, after checking with the Federal Aviation Administration, Dept. of Homeland Security, the Navy, the Air Force and the North American Air Defense Command.

Mick West, who runs a website devoted to CONTRAILS, knew it was an airplane the moment he saw the video.

"It's coming more or less straight towards you and it's in level flight," says West. "It's not climbing. It's not descending. It's probably around 35,000 feet."

How can that be when it looks for all the world as if it's climbing into space?

"The same CONTRAIL that looks like a rocket - from the side it, just looks like a CONTRAIL passing by," says West.

On viewing the video of the mystery missile, West has an answer.

"I've got a fairly good idea that it was U.S. Airways flight 808 from Hawaii," he says. "Honolulu to Phoenix."

A webcam photo of flight 808 taken Tuesday evening compared to a still frame from the mystery video shot Monday evening looks virtually identical.

Maybe the Pentagon could use a few good CONTRAIL watchers like Mick West.

Watch to compare the evidence:

[ObumbleSux]

I have it on good authority the contrails were from Pelosi's broom......seems she took it for a test flight before she loses the Gulfstream jet the taxpayers provided her as speaker.....Move along people,nothing to see here!

[finnertyManuel]

Seriously. I have been using google to keep track of news reports on this and it's starting to **** me off. This is being solidified into a "mystery missile" and the latest "conspiracy theory" craze... the officials are rallying around the airplane story. What pisses me off is how completely powerless the public is. Another thing that pisses me off is how completely weak the media coverage is, with these breathless 30 second reports, edits of the video, fast cuts... there isn't anyone really taking this seriously. It leaves us all babbling and makes us all "equals" that is, it's anyone's "guess." Another thing that pisses me off is how atomized the distribution of comment and analysis is, that is, we are all in our separate little webspaces posting our "comments." As far as I'm concerned, what is going on appears to be some kind of mass hysteria pschological warfare test. "Lets run it up the atmosphere and see who freaks out." I am going to post this comment in as many places as I can in the next half an hour and then I am going to crawl into my bunker and take some more acid.

[bonehead184]

I took a couple pics this morning containing 4 or 5 identical contrails here in Ohio, as we live between 2 airports. We don't have folks lightin off missiles around here, as we frown on that sort of thing. Air turbulence does odd things to contrails after they been sittin there for a few minutes.

[nickleplateroad]

Hey, Laser- I thought this thread ended long ago but after reading your comment, I was somewhat shocked that someone with your technical expertise would actually lend credence to a scenario that I was only "half joking" about.

I don't have your extensive experience but i do know a little about aeronautics, astronomy and- military posturing.

Our military concedes at least one "Ohio" Class boat with strategic capability in the PLA inventory. More importantly, they apparently, also, have the ability to "cloak" their submersible vessels.

Admiral Wu of the PLA Navy was recently publcised ranting and raving about how R.o.C. must achieve (dominance) over the entire Pacific Region. Additionally, it would make sense for the PLA to conduct a test launch during a presidential visit and economic summit (not to mention Veteran's Day}.. And if our Navy is limited in their tracking capabilities then it wouldn't even have been necessary for Comrade Admiral Wu to sail in under stealth.

The thing that concerns me is the sinking of the S. Korean cruiser with impunity. I'm now considering a scenario in which, in this age of instantaneous communication, Norad et al were immediately aware of the launch and the plausible denial means that we're not going to do anything about it..

[nickleplateroad]

oops, me bad. I guess we did do something about it. X-37 alters orbit. X-37 aims phaser. Booyah!

[6591Hou]

I think it's photo shopped - notice how nice and dark and indistinct it is towards the surface? LAX said no radar contact - nothing was there. Then there's the investigation into this being a redub of an engineering student class project in Florida where they launched a rocket into the Gulf - someone is suspected of taking that footage and making a sensation for California.

[LusciousDC]

If you believe this, I have some beach front property in the middle of Kansas for sell. I also have a line on a great bridge. Anyone interested?

[sinisterpictures]

They've been launching missiles like those from London since 2007. Did I say missile? Sorry I meant aircraft con trail!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/grertrude/3275535149/

[penguinsonarock]

Will someone please hire me as a reporter. This is getting silly. First of all, the launch position if I recall was (approx.) 35 miles off the coast. That eliminates airplanes. Repeat, eliminates airplanes. The rotation of the burn is consistent with missile launches.( Look it up).
And to CBS news: what a dismal job of investigative reporting.
1. The FAA tracks everything in the sky. It is or it isn't a logged
flight.
2. The military tracks everything in the sky. They know where the launch ( or flight if we're that naive) occurred. They know the trajectory and can follow it to splash down, being aborted, or into space. This is why we have military satellites, and very advanced radar systems. We're past the "I think it's a contrail" period.
3. If an error was made on a sub, by us or someone else it has been dealt with, and is "classified". The press can go fly a kite.
4. What did all of the various agencies say to this reporter. Please give us specifics. Someone's got the damn thing on radar! And how many different video's and photos from 50 different locations are there. Including eye-witness reports. But if you (CBS news)can't get the real story. Hey,: "Contrail".

[fjord_fox]

Amen! You forgot to mention something... And if they REALLY want to make it look like "nobody knew" you DON'T have a CBS News helicopter there with their cameras ready to film it from launch on, and then say, "Everybody was surprised with this one!" because how else WERE they there to film it if they didn't know it was going to be launched? It's almost like an arsonist starting a building on fire, leaving, and then coming back as "an innocent bystander" and helping the fire department put out the fire so he could be called a hero.

Another thing is that I read in an early report, after it had just happened, that the Pentagon didn't know anything about it--which they were lying about--and that they weren't interested in investigating it. There's only ONE REASON that they would NOT investigate it--and that is that it doesn't NEED to be investigated because they already know who did it.

Furthermore, if they DO know who did it, then there are only two who it could have been: 1) Us, but if WE did it, it would most likely have been from a place like Vandenberg A.F. Base, or 2) It could have been some other country, like China, and the Pentagon doesn't want to tell us because they don't want to spook the public and get us scared. I think the latter is the most likely place.

I think our answer is in plain sight, right here in the news:

<< Ellsworth urged American to wait for definitive answers to come from the military.

When asked, however, what he thought it might be, the former ambassador said it could possibly have been a missile test timed as a demonstration of American military might as President Obama tours Asia.

"It could be a test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile from a submarine ? to demonstrate, mainly to Asia, that we can do that," speculated Ellsworth.

Ellsworth said such tests were carried out in the Atlantic to demonstrate America's power to the Soviets, when there was a Soviet Union, but he doesn't believe an ICBM has previously been tested by the U.S. over the Pacific. >>
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/09/national/main7036716.shtml

I think Ellsworth KNOWS but he isn't telling. Yet, in a way, he IS telling, for those of us clever enough to understand what he means. I think the sentence that says: "such tests were carried out in the Atlantic to demonstrate America's power to the Soviets," tells us everything, for if WE did that to the Soviets, then why wouldn't the Chinese do it to US?

[nickleplateroad]

I'm, like, really into this now. I'm even sacrificing quality E-harmony Free Weekend time to offer up MY double digit I.Q. insights.

Yeah, a fixed wing aircraft doesn't produce that nice spiral effect. And the 808 proponents need to take a closer look at that flight's data. At the time of the sighting, flight 808 had been handed off to Phoenix Controllers and was descending on an easterly heading somewhere over the Mojave desert. It was definitely not looming over the Western Horizon.

And speaking of looming, how come no one's yet to implicate that head rearin', tiger wrasslin', little boy belly kissin', fun luvin', and all roun' all powerful and beloved ruler of the Russian Empire, Vladdy Putin, in all of this? oh, maybe he was on an adventure.

Anyway, I'm still going with the People's Republic. Comrade Admiral Wu Shengli and his PLA crew. Oh, did somebody refer to a U.S. "show of force"? Jeez, we just finished annihilating an entire country with most of the annihilation brought directly to your living room on prime time. Who would the Navy be trying to impress? The good people of Los Angeles? They DON'T care. Most of them don't even know what a contrail or ICBM is given a 70% functional illiteracy rate (L.A. Times). Just makes good fodder for Twitter, Evening New's sound bites, and Blogs like this.

So, visualize this. Anyone remember the scene from "Austin Powers II" where Miny Me wants to bite the cat's ear off and Dr. Evil tells him No! and he then responds indicating "just little nibble?" and Dr. evil still tells him No! not even a nibble! So, Comrade Secretary Hu and Comrade Admiral Wu are seated at the big oak table in the infamous locked oak door conference room enjoying their mochacinnos and Comrade Admiral is lamenting that "idiot Obama guy" will soon be arriving on our sacred shore and boldly bragging about how "'cowardly American dogs' were somehow able to trick our gallant and illustrious warriors into retreating back across the 38th parallel". He beg, "please Honorable Secretary, just one small nibble to confuse and humiliate cowardly American dogs." Secretary Hu replies, "but my dear Admiral, you only have one vessel and one tooth capable of taking this small nibble. If this mission fails it will prove to be a very costly one for all involved." Hu persists, "but please Honorable Secretary, they removed the Sacred Red Star from their Walmarts, they no longer respect us, and further more they owe us alot of Yuan. This new president must be taught obeisance. He bow to Arabs he must now be taught to bow before us". Hu consider and replies, "Arghhh, ok, ok, you may take your small bite. I will disavow any knowledge of your actions...and, Wu..don't screw up!" And Admiral Wu leaves the room with a smile and that's my conclusion. And that's the rest of the story.

And in closing, I've got to say that I'm an ardent supporter of President Obama and extremely grateful for the sacrifices made by the members of our Armed Forces past and present...

[Rusty_Shackleford69]

Nickleplaterroad, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone on this blog is now dumber for having read it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

[NewzHound]

Thank you, nickleplateroad. That was the most confusing and hilarious thing I've read all day!

[nickleplateroad]

Hei Rusty, i didn't expect a grade, and, given the current condition of the planet, may God have mercy on all our souls..

[nickleplateroad]

i can't get over Rusty invoking divine intervention as a result of my comment so i feel an overwhelming compulsion to jump bcak into the fray an 'splane (no pun intended) myself..oh, and maybe i can get at at least 1/2 point:

1) Fact-U.S. Air Flt.808 WAS on final approach to Sky Harbor and could NOT have produced the mystery contrail.

2) The "head rearing" reference to Vladdy was courtesy of the beloved Ms. Sarah Palin. The other appelations were from stuff i gleaned from the news.

3) Does anyone on this thread doubt the power and might of the U.S. Military? Is there anyone out there that doubts that the U.S. Navy has the capability to launch a missile from a submarine? Why than would the gov't. demonstrate a "show of force" off the coast of Southern California? The L.A. Times postulated the 70% functional illiteracy rate and i have no reason to doubt that assessment.

4) personally i didn't think comparing Sec. HU and Adm. Wu to Dr. Evil and Mini Me (there. i corrected the spelling, that ought to get me at least a 1/4 point) was that far off the mark. i mean, look at those guys! if anybody's intent on World domination, its the ROC.
And, by the way, Walmart did have a prominent red star in their logo. it's been moved to Macys. who in their ad depts. came up with that concept?

5) my support of our president and our armed forces is sincere. the majority of the American People elected President Obama. give the guy at least a full term in office.
and nobody likes war, "its bad for children and other living things" but watch the movie "Glory" again, think about the Pat Tillman story, or consider the sacrifices of the current deployments.

i rest my case.

[netjunkie1]

I hope the President didn't let his kids play with the football...lol

[Brian5013MS]

lol....good one. However....I can't see this president ever using the football regardless of what may be happening.