Off the coast of Los Angeles, California, a weird contrail was seen that had people freaked out. Contrails, the little white lines seen trailing behind airplanes, missiles, and the like as they travel along in the sky, generally are seen stretching at an angle, but this contrail shot straight up like a missile launch. The mystery contrail has a perfectly reasonable explanation: it’s an airplane contrail seen at a weird angle, nothing more. Conspiracy theorists, who need no real excuse to make up weird stories, had jumped on the missile launch angle, and the government’s lack of explanation of the matter only made things worse.
Still, the simplest explanation is best, according to John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org. “This thing is so obviously an airplane contrail, and yet apparently all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t find someone to stand up and say it. I guess the president’s out of town.” Pike said the trail was from an object moving too slowly to be a missile, commenting, “There’s a reason that they’re called rockets.”
It’s not reasonable that a foreign power would launch a missile only 35 miles off the US coast, but I guess as crazy conspiracies go, it’s more reasonable than a disco UFO launch. Given Russia’s history of testing weapons in weird places, I guess it could have been a missile, potentially.
Tags: Los Angeles, California, contrail, mysterious contrail looks like missile launch, California contrail, California missile launch, missile launch scare, California missile contrail, smoke trail actually from airplane, mystery smoke trail, optical illusions, John Pike, GlobalSecurity.org, LA missile launch
