…just took off from LAX, roughly 10:15am pacific time. I was in my car and had no camera anyway and would have had no chance taking any picts. – Plane was smallish (smaller than a 373) but with FOUR propellers – yes!
And – what might make it easier to identify – had some sort of “elongation” extending backwards from the fuselage. – It was not a T-tail…
Instinctively, I was reminded of the types of planes that picked up “satellite drops”…
Anyone have any idea of the nature of this plane…? – It took off westward from northern field (normal pattern) but that’s all I know…
…wow…thank you rw812 for identifying (craft) based on my description…!
…and thank you m3Spinner for verifying my observation – trés cool…wish I could have caught it with my camera so I could have uploaded a pict…
…also – wish I could have edited my original post and corrected “373” to “737”…stuff happens…
So it looks like the plane scanned the space between the Santa Barbara coastline and the Channel Islands…and that’s also interesting…I guess we’ll never find out what that was all about…
There’s a great documentary out there called “1941.” I recommend you watch it. I talks about the Japanese submarines off the coast of LA looking for Hollywood…
…I remember that trail well – i did think it was somewhat “striking” to see from Dockweiler Beach at sunset, but never ever thought it would produce the hoopla it did on the news…it was absurd…it WAS a tad unusual in the sense that aircraft typically do not take that route, but…
After that I saw similar trails many times at around sunset…(over the horizon of the Pacific…)
