Crowd sourcing vs. network news
(Update Below)
A missile was fired off the coast of California. CBS repeatedly referred to it as a “mystery missile” and bothered the ambassador of NATO about it, with moderately comic results:
“It’s spectacular… It takes people’s breath away,” said Ellsworth, calling the projectile, “a big missile”.
Then they called up the Navy, which denied any knowledge of the launch.
Meanwhile, at reddit.com, one of the crowd-sourced community’s tens of thousands of users of differing backgrounds and skill sets happened to know that U.S. missile launches are always accompanied by air traffic alerts. He dug up the pertinent alert, confirming that the Navy had indeed launched the missile, and posted it to the reddit page on which the CBS article was being discussed. It was quickly voted to the top, such that anyone who checked out reddit would be immediately privy to the following piece of data:
NOTAM for LA.
KZLA LOS ANGELES A2832/10 – THE FOLLOWING RESTRICTIONS ARE REQUIRED DUE TO NAVAL AIR WARFARE CENTER WEAPONS DIVISION ACTIVATION OF W537. IN THE INTEREST OF SAFETY, ALL NON-PARTICIPATING PILOTS ARE ADVISED TO AVOID W537. IFR TRAFFIC UNDER ATC JURISDICTION SHOULD ANTICIPATE CLEARANCE AROUND W537 AND CAE 1176. CAE 1155 WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE FOR OCEANIC TRANSITION. CAE 1316 & CAE 1318 WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE FOR OCEANIC TRANSITION. CAE 1177 WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR OCEANIC TRANSITION. W537 ACTIVE, CAE 1176 CLOSED. SURFACE – FL390, 09 NOV 20:00 2010 UNTIL 10 NOV 01:00 2010. CREATED: 08 NOV 20:52 2010
Update
Unless this particular Notice to Airmen is utilizing some time zone on the other end of the planet – which is unlikely, not least of which because this is directed at California – the above references a restriction that goes into effect today, rather than yesterday when the missile actually appeared. There should be an equivalent notice for the actual time of the launch – assuming that the Navy or whoever is not just firing missiles off the coast of California without warning these days.
Update II: The Awakening
A contributor to National Review has now linked to this post, apparently without having caught the relevant update or the date discrepancy (which is something I should have caught myself originally). Anyway, welcome, National Review readers. Please enjoy this article about Rich Lowry.
Take that, Clifford Stoll.Report
Presumably the times are UTC (Zulu), so the valid period of the NOTAM is for the 9th at 2000 UTC to the 10th at 0100 UTC, or 12pm to 5pm PST *today* (Tuesday). However, it was issued just hours before the launch in question.Report
If you check the relevant charts, you’ll see that W537 is quite a bit North of the suspected launch area, near Vandenberg AFB and is associated with aircraft weapons testing out of Point Mugu. An SLBM or ocean surface launch also requires a Notice to Mariners, and I’ve not been able to find any indication one was issued.Report
Re: Update II.
Well, it’ll be nice to be called an echo chamber of the left for a change.Report
It’s not a missile. It’s a jet.Report
NOTAMs are in Zulu (GMT) time…which fits this missile launch.
Also, you can see a CH-47 “Chinook” helicopter in the upper-right frame of the video.
Learly, this was a US Navy missile launch.Report
I don’t think so, Malik. I’m saying that this guy is probably right, it was a contrail from U.S. Air Flight 808 from Honolulu to Phoenix. But if you want to continue enjoying a needless, irrational panic, don’t let me slow you down.Report
Yeah, I think this guy has it right. If you look at the way the Sun is lighting the L.A. contrail, you can tell that the “lower” end of the contrail is actually much further West than the “upper” end. A missile contrail would have the lower end more in shadow than the upper, extending part. I’d guess the red light from the front tip is also reflected sunlight, and not an exhaust nozzle.
I’m speaking as a private citizen here, not as a representative of my employer.Report