California “Missile” Just an Airplane’s Trail, Says Pentagon [Followup]

That missile over California spotted by CBS on Monday night and freaked out over by the Internet for the past two days? The Pentagon (in agreement with the theory posited by Breaking News’ Michael van Poppel which we passed along yesterday afternoon) says that it was no missile at all, but a mere contrail, or trail of artificial precipitation in the form of water vapor and ice crystals, created by an airplane.

“With all the information that we have gathered over the last day and a half about this condensation trail … we have no evidence to suggest that this was anything other than a contrail caused by an aircraft,” said Colonel David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman.

While the Pentagon didn’t name a specific flight, blogger Liem Bahneman makes a persuasive case that the mystery missile was actually US Airways Flight 808, en route from Honolulu to Phoenix.

Previously: Mystery missile launch in California?

(via Globe & Mail)