미국 캘리포니아 주 서부 일대와 네바다, 애리 조나주 상공에서 7일밤 (현지시간) 벌어진 'UFO 소동'은 탄도 미사일 발사 실험을 오인한 것이었다고 CNN과 AP통신 등이 8일(이하 현지시간) 보도했다.
7일 밤 캘리포니아 근해 상공에서는 빠르게 이동하는 원뿔 모양의 길게 늘어진 섬광이 포착됐다.
로스앤젤레스 등 캘리포니아 주 남서부 해안 일대 도시에서는 물론이고 캘리포 니아 동쪽의 내륙지대인 네바다 주와 애리조나 주에서도 목격될 정도였다.
주민들은 이 섬광을 보고 소셜 미디어에 영상을 올리며 미확인비행물체(UFO), 소행성, 외계인 착륙 등 온갖 억측을 쏟아냈고 경찰 등에 전화를 걸어 신고하기도 했다.
하지만, 이날 소동은 미 해군의 잠수함 발사 탄도 미사일 실험으로 빚어진 것으 로 밝혀졌다.
미 해군은 실험 후 "탄도미사일 탑재 잠수함인 USS켄터키 호가 발사한 미사일" 이라고 발표했다.
해군은 "무기 체계의 신뢰성 검증 차원에서 정기적으로 꾸준히 하는 실험"이라 며 "실험을 하기 전까지는 기밀을 유지한다"고 설명했다.
발사된 미사일은 트라이던트Ⅱ로 탄두는 장착하지 않았다고 해군은 밝혔다.
'해군 전략 시스템 프로그램'으로 불리는 이 실험은 오는 12일까지 이어진다. (연합)
<관련 영문 기사>
Naval missile test off California creates streaking light
A bright, colorful light that streaked across the California sky, startling residents and leading to a flurry of calls to law enforcement, turned out to be an unarmed missile test-fired from a Navy submarine off the coast Saturday evening, officials said.
Kevin Stack was walking to dinner with his young son in northeastern Los Angeles when he was stopped in his tracks by what he thought was an especially intense light from a police helicopter _ except that it was completely silent.
“It intensified then shot across the dark sky, leaving a green trail,” said Stack, 41. “Then it fizzled and appeared like a dying dot on an old television screen.”
Stack’s 5-year-old son, Blackstone, was under no illusions about what he had just seen.
“It was an alien,” Blackstone said.
Not quite, said Cmdr. Ryan Perry, a Navy spokesman. Navy Strategic Systems Programs conducted a missile test at sea from the USS Kentucky, a ballistic missile submarine, Perry said in a statement.
The launches are conducted on a frequent basis to ensure the continued reliability of the system and that information about such test launches is classified prior to the launch, he said.
The lack of information about the streak of light just after sunset led to panicked calls to police and lit up social media as people posted photos and video of the celestial sight.
Julien Solomita just happened to be shooting some video footage in a Los Angeles neighborhood when his group saw something odd up above.
“It was very wild watching this in the sky,” he said in an email to The Associated Press. “I can’t really say what I thought it was because I’ve never experienced anything remotely close to it.”
The light was visible for hundreds of miles (kilometers), startling people in Nevada and Arizona and as far north as California’s Sonoma Valley wine country.
“Anybody else see the big white ball of light in the sky?” wrote California state Sen. Mike McGuire on Facebook. “Wow.”
It wasn’t clear whether the test was related to the rerouting of nighttime flights into and out of Los Angeles International Airport because of an active military airspace from Friday to Nov. 12.
Flights usually arrive and depart over the ocean from midnight to 6:30 a.m. to minimize noise, but they will have to go over communities east of the airport.
A message seeking comment from the Federal Aviation Administration wasn’t immediately returned.
The test was conducted in the Pacific Test Range, a vast area northwest of Los Angeles where the Navy periodically test-fires Tomahawk and Standard cruise missiles from surface ships and submarines. (AP)
