Los angeles unidentified missile

It provided no further details. The radar replayed did not reveal any fast moving unidentified targets in that area.

The FAA also did not receive reports of any unusual sightings from pilots who were flying in the area Monday afternoon. Finally the FAA did not approve any commercial space launches around the area Monday.

All Rights Reserved. Normally any missile test would require notification so that mariners and pilots could be warned or air space closed, but that may not have been done in this case, Lapan said.

Missile tests are common off the coast of Southern California. Launches are conducted from vessels and platforms on an ocean range west of Point Mugu. One expert called it an optical illusion. It provided no further details. Best Of. Photos: Rapper J. The crew aboard the helicopter estimated the contrail was approximately 35 miles west out to sea, north of Catalina Island.

The video drew more attention when local news stations were told by Navy and Air Force officials that they did not launch a missile Monday night. Because the video shows what appears to have been a missile launch at sea, there was speculation that a Navy vessel, perhaps even a submarine, might have launched a missile off the California coast.

However, Navy officials determined that none of their vessels had fired a missile. Vandenberg Air Force Base, north of Los Angeles, is a regular launch point for missile tests, but Air Force officials confirmed that they had no missile activity either on Monday night. Ivan Oelrich, with the Federation of American Scientists, screened the KCBS-TV video for ABC News and said he could not be certain about what the video shows because it shows characteristics of both a missile launch or perhaps an optical illusion involving a plane's contrail.

Oelrich said it could be a jet contrail because if "it's horizontal goes a long, long distance, almost to the horizon, then it looks vertical. He speculated that a glint of light seen at the top of the contrail might be the exhaust from a rocket engine, but it "doesn't appear earlier, which is unusual, because if it were a rocket, you would see that continuously.

That could mean the glint of light might be the sun's reflection off the top of a plane, "up high, still in the sunlight while you're down below in the darkness so that could be sun glint. There has been speculation that if the military was not behind the apparent missile firing caught on tape, that it may have been a commercial venture. However, even private commercial testing requires coordination with federal aviation and maritime agencies to ensure no civilian aircraft or boats enter a maritime splash or launch area.