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Mystery missile still swirling around the Web

By W.J. Hennigan
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Despite the Pentagon’s attempt to put the whole “mystery missile” situation to rest, it hasn’t stopped rampant speculation on the Web about what really happened.

The unexplained projectile, spotted just before sunset Nov. 8 by a Los Angeles news helicopter, set off a wave of speculation and conspiracy theories about an unexplained missile off the coast of Southern California that even the government didn’t know about.

After two days, the Pentagon said the vapor plume was generated by an aircraft and not a missile.

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But a week after all the hubbub, it hasn’t stopped the gossip.

It’s a trending topic on Google. A quirky online news site is reporting a UFO spotting and a Russian news station featured an eccentric analyst who claimed aliens shot down the intercontinental ballistic missile.

Even ‘The Daily Show’s’ Jon Stewart has had some fun with the whole ordeal.

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Pentagon says no evidence vapor trail came from anything but an aircraft

-- W.J. Hennigan

Technology Blog
W.J. Hennigan

W.J. Hennigan covered the Pentagon and national security issues from Washington, D.C., before leaving the Los Angeles Times bureau in November 2017. While there, he reported on war, counter-terrorism, and the lives of American service members from more than two dozen countries and previously covered the aerospace and defense industry from Los Angeles. Hennigan earned awards from the National Press Club, the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, and was a contributor to the Los Angeles Times coverage of the terror attacks in San Bernardino that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2016.

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