Mystery Missile Launched Off Los Angeles Coast

[Darth Rock&Roll]

I'm thinking it's probably a contrail seeing as there are a bajillion contrail photos that look pretty much exactly like that.

[Bill]

The military knows what's going on. They don't want to tell us.

[I-mon]

I love how they're always looking for a chance to drop phrases like "threat to the homeland". Where's my flag I want to start waving it!? Huzzah!

[qiphlow]

I love how they're always looking for a chance to drop phrases like "threat to the homeland". Where's my flag I want to start waving it!? Huzzah!

gotta stick to the marketing plan, right? it's hard to have a war with no enemy.

[Dmitri]

So some guy eats a lot of Mexican food and goes for a swim...
Big mystery my ass. I mean, his ass.
Sheesh! I mean, swoosh!

[chud]

I'm thinking it's probably a contrail...

Rrrrrright....
If it's a contrail, then FAA should have had the plane on radar.

Frankly the lack of concern by the government is baffling to me. A missile is launched from your territory and you have no idea who launched it, yet you're "unconcerned" and there's "no threat to the homeland"?!?
They either know exactly what happened, or they're completely inept.

[qiphlow]

clearly, it's a weather balloon.

[Darth Rock&Roll]

or swamp gas, could also be venus...

[Steve James]

If it's a contrail, then FAA should have had the plane on radar.

Well, the FAA doesn't monitor anything of itself; I think you mean that it should have shown up on airport radar for that sector at a particular altitude. (Actually, I'm not sure that it didn't). Large commercial aircraft are tracked using transponders. They're not identified from radar blips. Now, in terms of military surveillance of US airspace, it's likely that it would be tracked --if it entered US airspace from outside.
Fwiw, a contrail doesn't have to be horizontal. It could be formed by an object moving vertically, which would have made it invisible to civilian radar. I.e., a hotshot pilot could push through the sound barrier from takeoff and produce a contrail. However, the military is supposed to announce testing and even routine flights --and give an advisory or issue a 'no fly' warning. But, even a civilian amateur rocketeer would be required to announce the launch of anything into commercial airspace.

[Strange]

clearly, it's a weather balloon.

of course it is; what else do you think it is?

[Ian]

Felipe,

whatever it is, it's definitely not an airliner contrail. from the video you can clearly see the afterburner.

[Darth Rock&Roll]

sorry to disappoint Ian, but it was America West Flight 808 and it was a contrail.

which is why nobody tracked a missile and why nothing was out of the ordinary.

these days, people have more technology than they understand.

people see lenticular clouds and think they're spaceships.
people record light aircraft at night and make the assumption they're aliens from another planet!

Technology is making people dumber in my opinion.
The less people have to use their brain, the less they will use their brain.