Missile over NY? (credit: Juan Rodriguez / NY Post)

As with the UFO sightings hype of October, initiated by a mass UFO sighting in New York, it appears that media hype surrounding the mysterious Los Angeles coast vapor trail is going to result in additional “mystery missile” sightings around the country. The New York Post is reporting a New York mystery missile. Yesterday, a Queens resident photographed what he believed to be rocket in the sky above Brooklyn or New Jersey.

The investigation into the strange vapor trail off California’s coast has been called off by the Pentagon after reaching the conclusion that the trail was simply caused by an airplane, and an “optical illusion” from the camera’s angle is what gave the plane and its trail the missile-like appearance.

But there are many who refuse to accept the Pentagon’s explanation.

According to the New York Post, Doug Richardson, editor of Jane’s Missiles and Rockets magazine, said he was certain it was “a solid-propellant missile,” referring to the Los Angeles UFO. Further, the NYP states that the Pentagon, Navy, Air Force, Federal Aviation Administration, Coast Guard and North American Aerospace Defense Command have said that, following their investigations, they are unable to explain what it was.

As for the latest “mystery missile” in New York, the witness who took the photograph said that the trail he observed did not resemble the usual contrails produced by planes from the nearby JFK Airport.

Object over Newfoundland

Historically, if a UFO sighting is significant enough to make it on the nightly news, it has almost been guaranteed that the same explanation will be given for absolutely every sighting – “It’s a weather balloon.” Weather (or “research”) balloons have been the default report offered by government and other officials when it has come to explaining mysterious areal objects. The balloon response even dates back to the famous 1947 Roswell incident, where a research balloon was offered as the official explanation for a downed craft (after retracting an initial statement about the capture of a flying saucer). Based on responses to recent sightings, however, it seems that the “weather balloon” response has now been replaced by a new default response – “It was a missile test.”

A missile-like UFO sighting was recently observed by hundreds of residents in a rural community in Newfoundland. Witnesses reported the noiseless object rising from the ocean, and shooting through the sky with smoke and flames shooting out its back. The French Ministry of Defence came forward to state that it had launched a test missile from a submarine recently.

Object over China

Another recent flying object was seen over Xinjiang, China. The bright object had a cone tail, and was flashing red, blue, white, and green lights. The explanation for this object was a ground-based midcourse missile interception test.

Object over Norway

Yet another strange object was seen recently – this one in the sky above northern Norway. As seen in the photo, the sky was filled with a blue trail, leading to a brightly illuminated, spiraling object. This incident has been explained by the testing of a new Russian intercontinental missile. Russia has admitted that their recent test was a failure (which could explain the spiral motion of the object), but Russia’s defense ministry refuses to confirm that the mysterious lights seen over Norway were from their missile test.

It’s possible that several countries are conducting more and more missile tests. It’s also possible that missile tests are the new trendy subterfuge that will replace the weather balloon to explain UFO sightings. Either way, I wonder how many more unusual objects in the sky will be credited to missile tests this year.

Sorry, weather balloon. You’re a has-been. I think you’ve been replaced by something sexier and flashier.