KCBS Sky Crew Captures 'Mystery Missile'

It sounds like something from the NBC rookie drama The Event, where downed airliners disappear from the landscape, but it was actually on CBS.

KCBS Los Angeles has the footage [linked to here], shot from its Sky 2 helicopter, that sure as heck appears to show a missile cruising through the L.A. sky last night around 5.

Of interest to conspiracy theorists everywhere, no one is claiming ownership of the mystery projectile. Reports the AP:

“Nobody within the Department of Defense that we’ve reached out to has been able to explain what this contrail is, where it came from,” Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said.

KFMB San Diego got former deputy secretary of defense Robert Ellsworth to speculate on what might be going on with the unexplained show of air strength. Also of note to the conspiracy theorists: Ellsworth said it could be to President Obama’s visit to India.

“It could be a test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile from a submarine … to demonstrate, mainly to Asia, that we can do that.”

NORAD was emphatic that the as-yet unidentified flying object did not come from a foreign country, and we are not under attack.

UPDATE: It was apparently a mere vapor trail from an airplane that may have been distorted by the camera. LA is OK. We’re all OK. Robert Ellsworth was dramatically incorrect in his speculation about intercontinental ballistic missiles. We think.