I’m willing to say without any fear of being eventually disproven:
This is a contrail.
I like to a site below that explains this, but I’ll explain why I’m convinced it’s a contrail:
First, you need to do what I did when you watch this video, which is mute it and ignore the words on the screen. Ignore all the video accompanying it and just watch the footage of the object.
The first thing you notice is that even in 720p, you’re seeing an extreme digital zoom. The image is too pixelated to make out details.
The second thing you notice is … well … it looks exactly like a contrail seen at dusk on the Upper Great Plains, the kind that criss-cross our skies all day long.
We have jet traffic passing overhead at 30K feet all day and all night long. It comes from O’Hare, LAX, NYC, Canada, Texas, everywhere. Sometimes our skies look like a gridwork of parallel and perpendicular lines.
On a clear day in the Upper Great Plains, you really can see to 30K feet and above. Sometimes the sky is so clear you can actually see the glint of the aircraft at the head of the contrail. If the aircraft is at 10K feet or so, you can make out the details of the wings, lights if they’re on, etc.
What we have here is a contrail.
The reason it looks as though it’s going up with its trail billowing behind it is this:
It’s approaching the viewer. The aircraft is at the head of the contrail heading roughly east at about 30K feet. The contrail is behind it, trailing west. The contrail is spreading out and being blown somewhat south by high-altitude winds.
My guess is that the passengers or cargo of the aircraft were probably experiencing some chop from the winds.
I see these things all day. Seriously.
The color is because it’s early evening and the sun is giving a slight reddish tint to the clouds and the contrail.
I have, for almost 46 years, looked up in the sky every day and every night wishing I could boldly go where no man has gone before.
Consequently, I’ve seen a ton of contrails. 😉
You have to understand that apparently, most people just don’t look up very much.
Let me give you an example of why I’m sure that CBS News is a bunch of morons:
In 1991, I took a 100-level astronomy course that met at about 11am. The instructor asked the class if the Moon was ever visible during the day.
The class (with myself being the only exception) agreed that the Moon was never visible in daytime. Indeed, they maintained that the Moon was always on the opposite side of the planet during the day.
The instructor took the class outside and pointed to the clearly-visible moon.
These kids were all 18-20 years old, from suburban Chicago — and had never looked up during the day and noticed the moon.
Similarly, this CBS cameraman had never seen a contrail like this before.
Our news agencies are simply filled with lazy ignorami who don’t know a jet when they see one.
This doesn’t surprise me having debunked no less than three major stories of theirs in one week.
The other two were that Obama took a 11% of the US Navy to India (including an aircraft carrier) and that Jakarta was sending 25% of their cops to guard him while in the city.
In those cases, both were easily debunked. In the first case, I could prove it from easily-Google-able public records. 11% of the US Navy is neither concentrated in the Indian Ocean, nor anywhere else. Further, Jakarta (a city of nine million) could no more afford to throw 25% of their cops at Obama than could the NYPD.
These people are ignorami who no longer perform any verification of any stories. Indeed, the Onion News Network really is probably as accurate as the American press.
Here’s the link:
As they said in Fantastic Four:
“Now imagine that — but everywhere.”
That’s the skies in the Upper Great Plains.
It’s just a contrail, and CBS News are a bunch of ignorami trying to find news all day long and never, ever fact-checking it.
-30-
Tales From SYL Ranch 