Mystery Missile: Probably Just a Jet

After much hullabaloo all day about a possible missile flying off the coast of Southern California, experts said Tuesday afternoon it was probably not a missile at all, but rather a jet. Military analysts said it was most likely an aircraft flying close to the horizon, and thus looked like a missile coming head-on. “The short explanation is that we don’t see a lot of jet contrails head-on, especially from the vantage point of a helicopter. So, it looks like a missile to everyone else,” writes New America Foundation analyst Jeffrey Lewis. Lewis and other analysts said that if the flying object had indeed been a missile it would have shown up on America's missile-warning system.