A Pentagon official said that an examination of radar data, satellite imagery and other sophisticated monitoring technology by multiple U.S. government agencies has turned up no conclusive evidence that a missile was fired in that vicinity and at that time.
Even U.S. agencies that monitor launches of rockets by private individuals or companies had no information of a launch, he said.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said that FAA records showed commercial airliners were flying in the area at the time, and that most government experts were coming to the conclusion that the condensation trail was caused by an aircraft. "The best we can tell, it was probably caused by an aircraft," the official said.
"Probably caused by an aircraft" sounds unreassuringly tentative to me, particularly when commenting about an unidentified missile-like object launched from US waters. Apparently, the Department of Defense can't really say exactly what the object was, yet. Obviously, if it was an "aircraft," then it shouldn't be much of a problem for the DoD and FAA to identify that particular aircraft. The KCBS News helicopter that took the video of the object has the geographic position and time that the object was sighted and captured on video. That should enable the DoD and FAA to determine exactly what aircraft were operating in that general area at the time.Don't know about you, but I'm not convinced, yet. The more I look at that video, the less and less it looks like a jet contrail to me. The second part of the KCBS video, where you can see the bright flaring of what is obviously a powerful engine in full ignition, doesn't look like any jet engine I've ever seen. To read the rest of this rapidly evolving spin, click here.