Catapulting the Propaganda

Pentagon NOW Says California 'Missile' Was an Aircraft... a Full 48 Hours After the Event

November 10, 2010

Daily Mail - It may have taken 48 hours, but the Defense Department is now saying that it was an airplane and, crucially, not a missile that left a mysterious vapor trail off the coast of Southern California.

Pentagon spokesman Dave Lapan said:

'There is no evidence to suggest that this is anything else other than a condensation trail from an aircraft.'

Colonel Lapan reiterated that there was no threat to America.

The video of what looks like the contrail of a missile was shot on Monday evening by KCBS cameraman Gil Leyvas from a news helicopter over Los Angeles.

Mysterious: Authorities have been left baffled as to what the phenomenon was off the Southern California on Monday. It certainly looked like a missile launch

Trail's gone cold: The Pentagon said that none of the military or Department of Defense agencies have said they were involved in this

Amazing image: The contrail was seen from Los Angeles and miles around but no ownership has yet been made to the launch, which lit up the sky on Monday

He said:

'I saw a big plume coming up, rising from what looked like beyond the horizon, and it continued to grow.'

An FAA official told CBS News:

'We don't know the exact location, trajectory or altitude of the contrail, so we can't determine if it belonged to a specific aircraft.'

Experts had attempted to unravel the mystery of the ‘missile’ since it was spotted on Monday evening -- but the Pentagon had kept unusually tight lipped over the incident.

John Pike, a defense and aerospace expert who runs the website GlobalSecurity.org, is convinced the phenomenon was a simple trick of the eye. He said:

'This thing is so obviously an airplane contrail... There's a reason that they're called rockets.'

Off the coast: The location of the missile was said to be west of Los Angeles, north of Catalina Island, and approximately 35 miles out to sea

He said the object was moving too slow to be a missile, and footage showed light of varying intensity coming from the object, which suggested reflected light from the sun rather than light generated from an engine.

It looked like a missile launch, he said, because of an optical illusion that made the contrail appear as though it started on the ground and zoomed straight up.

In reality, he said, the contrail began on the horizon and ran parallel to the ground.

'It was an unusually clear day, so what looked like a missile launch 35 miles off the coast of Los Angeles was actually the contrail of a jet that stretched 300 miles into the distance.'

His view was echoed by a senior military official who last night told Fox News that the contrail was ‘more likely caused by an airplane than anything else because the other possibilities of rockets or missiles are turning up negative.’

Instead of identifying the phenomenon, the Pentagon would only deny responsibility for the missile.

Not ours: Vandenberg Air Force based confirmed they launched a Delta II rocket on Friday but was not responsible for yesterday's missile

And spokesmen for the Navy, Air Force, the Defence Department and North American Aerospace Defense Command all said they were in the dark.

Military officials said it was possible a private company may have been behind the incident, but Mr Pike did not agree with internet theories that it was an unannounced missile test, adding:

'If it were secret, we'd do it at night in Alaska.'

However, Doug Richardson, editor of Jane’s Missiles and Rockets, said he was left in little doubt that it was a missile after examining the video.

‘It’s a solid propellant missile,’ he told the Times. ‘You can tell from the efflux [smoke].’

He added it could have been a ballistic missile launched from a submarine or an interceptor, the defensive anti-missile weapon used by Navy surface ships.

Kevin Martin, a meteorologist of the Southern Californian Weather Authority, also subscribes to the aircraft theory. He told Examiner.com:

‘We see this often when the flights come at the right time, however, some people are just out to witness it at the right time.’

Plane crazy: The missile launch appeared to get close to an aircraft from nearby LAX airport. But many now believe it was the result of a rare optical illusion

Colonel Lapan said an official missile test would usually involve air space being closed off and a notification to all shipping in the area. But there was no advance notice of the event.

KCBS-TV cameraman Mr Leyvas said he was aboard the station's helicopter shooting footage of the sunset over the ocean at 5.15pm when he noticed a spiral-shaped vapor trail and zoomed in to get a better look. The on-board camera appeared to show a plume twisting up from the horizon and narrowing as it 'climbed' into the sky. He said:

'Whatever it was, it was spinning up into the sky kind of like a spiral. It was quite a sight to see. It was spectacular.'

And he wasn't the only one to see it. When Kelly Spear looked out the back window of her San Pedro home to see a rising orange line on the horizon, she thought it might be a rocket launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base. She said:

'I told myself it was just a plane, but I really had no idea. We have a pretty expansive view, and I've never seen anything like that before.'