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Comment by bl4k | Hacker News Reader

The fact that the US military response was 'nope, wasn't us' instead of 'oh my fucking god can you believe somebody just fired a missile off the coast of LA!' pretty much tells me it was them.

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Possible alternative explanation:

http://www.examiner.com/weather-in-los-angeles/missile-launc...

Fits with your point about the DoD being all kinds of crazy if they suspected it was an actual event they had no hand in.

As usual the low quality of video and unreliability of eye-witnesses are going to make this way more crazy than it needs to be, regardless of the actual eventual outcome.

EDIT: A better explanation with historical pictures: http://www.smartplanet.com/technology/blog/thinking-tech/the...

Surely the FAA could verify if there was a flight taking off in that trajectory right?

I would hope that the retain sufficient records to do so, and expect that they will. Whether that will get news coverage is a separate question...

And I'm sure that, regardless, some fraction will insist that it's a cover-up and continue to talk about it for the next decade.

A contrail webpage with the "jet contrail looks like missile if you look at it from one angle" theory. http://uncinus.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/4/

If it is a missile, then clearly a group of people with a boat should go and recover whatever it is. Since the military denies that they own it, then it seems to be abandoned property.

Surely someone would be interested in buying the remains of it for the technology.

Since the military doesn't own it, then they can't really say anything about you selling/reverse engineering/posting online abandoned property that's probably sitting in international waters now can they?

Either that, or the military is caught in a lie to the American people.

I know if I see what looks to be an ICBM over my city, I'm headed for the closest fallout shelter and assuming the worst. Anyone putting up faux-ICBMs over major cities is clearly causing terrorism, as in causing terror, uncertainty and fear among the public by not explaining and warning them.

>Surely someone would be interested in buying the remains of it for the technology.

...unless it, say, exploded.

Personally, I wouldn't want to pick up an unexploded missile anyway; there'd be no way to know whether it didn't explode because it doesn't have a warhead, or just hasn't exploded yet.

I'd really hope that (if it was the US Military) that they wouldn't shoot live weaponry like that on US territory. Sounds like a great lawsuit- although not one that I'd want the damages (death, harm) originally from.

Actually, that happens all the time. There are many live fire ranges for planes, artillery, etc. scattered across the US. No reason the Navy wouldn't light a few off from a sub.

There isn't a reason that the military can't test weaponry, they just usually do it in quarantined areas or with notice to the public.

Haha - tell that to my uncle who got buzzed by an F16 in his Cessna outside the live fire zone ;-)

This is why they usually fire the self-destruct ordnance on spent stages so it's not floating in the ocean. I imagine likewise for anything they want kept secret. Self-destruct or flight termination systems are required by the missile ranges.

> Since the military doesn't own it, then they can't really say anything about you selling/reverse engineering/posting online abandoned property that's probably sitting in international waters now can they?

This is so wrong. Look up "ITAR". If you're a US citizen, the State Department can have your ass. If you're not a US citizen, well then, the options could be grimmer.

Hmm, that's mainly to do with import/export though right? If its sitting in international waters (which it may or may not be) then that isn't you exporting it from the US. In fact, they sent the weapon outside the US themselves.

Also, maybe you wouldn't sell it outside of the US, but inside.

Wouldn't stopping me from just even simply owning this infringe my right to bear (massive) arms? :)

"If it is a missile, then clearly a group of people with a boat should go and recover whatever it is."

How is anyone going to know where it went down?

Science!

Why would they admit their ignorance, rather than make discreet queries through private channels?

This is probably a contrail.

Standard military exercise, people. Nothing to see here. Move along, move along.

Given how close to land it was and the time it was fired (just approaching the peak of the news cycle) certainly points to a publicity stunt of some sort.

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