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Mystery 'Missile' Identified As US Airways Flight 808

Posted by timothy on from the just-what-they-want-you-to-think dept.

sean.peters writes "The mystery missile discussed on Slashdot Tuesday? It was US Airways 808 from Honolulu to Phoenix. An amateur sleuth checked the time against airline schedules, then the following day, checked out a webcam that was trained in the appropriate direction. He found the exact same contrail at the time AWE808 was coming over. The author deals persuasively with a number of objections to his argument."

5 of 335 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I don't care. by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Doug Richardson, the editor of Jane's Missiles and Rockets, examined the video for the Times of London and said he was left with little doubt.

    "It's a solid propellant missile," he told the Times. "You can tell from the efflux [smoke]."

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  2. Re:Sounds like the standard counter intelligence by Wonko+the+Sane · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So yeah, if you believe that the government can create that good of a cover story with that much independent evidence in a 36 hour period, well, you have more faith in government agencies than I do.

    That's the bizarre thing - why did it take 36 hours to get an answer and why didn't the definitive answer come from a definitive source?

    So it was flight 808. Either the DoD and FAA were unable to figure that out in short order or else they just don't care about giving the public answers to those kind of questions.

    Neither one of those possibilities is particularly good.

  3. Plane Finder by Fartypants · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I was going to say this would been much easier if the Plane Finder AR iphone and android app wasn't labeled "an aid to terrorists" and removed from app stores, but it looks like you can still get it. There's a web version too at www.planefinder.net

  4. Daylight Savings Change by JoelWink · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think one aspect of this story that hasn't been mentioned is the fact that daylight savings time kicked in the previous day. So, let's say this is a regular weekday flight that arrives in Phoenix in the early evening. After the November 7th "fall back" daylight savings time change, this flight, which may have passed over L.A. in bright daylight on Friday November 5th, is now illuminated on Monday November 8th with dramatic dusk lighting, resulting in a very different looking contrail.

  5. Re:Dag-nabbit. by DerekLyons · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The picture fooled me, too.

    Didn't fool me for a second - because it looked pretty much like a contrail and exactly nothing like a rocket launch.
     
    What we have here is a classic case of sensationalism and the power of suggestion and preconceived notions over common sense and stopping to think. The news said it was a missile - and a lot of people became convinced it was a missile rather than asking themselves whether the news was right or not. Even a lot of otherwise intelligent people went along with that conclusion because it agreed with their anti-government/pro-government-conspiracy beliefs.