A hawk-eyed user on Google maps found what appears to be a commercial airliner downed in an Australian rainforest, which sent authorities scrambling to solve the mystery.
Mystery airliner spotted an Australian rainforest on Google maps
People have spotted some amazing things over the years on Google Maps. In 2019, users directed Florida police to a submerged car, where they found the body of a man who had been missing for over 20 years.
This time, someone browsing Google Maps spotted what appears to be a fully-intact commercial airliner that, at first glance, seemed to have gone down in the Australian rainforest, the New York Post reported.
The area was identified as a clearing on the Cardwell Range, which is located near the coast between Townsville and Cairns, the Daily Mail reported. The Mail speculated the large aircraft as being a standard Airbus A320 or Boeing 737, both of which are commonly used by commercial carriers.
The aircraft appeared to be facing south on a heading that would have taken well to the east of Townsville. The plane is west of known flight paths along the north Queensland coast.
It is unclear how the image came to the attention of Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), but the Australian Transport Safety Bureau stated that it wasn’t unaware of any missing passenger jets.
After further investigating, the CASA offered a theory on the image…
Authorities believe they have solved the mystery
One theory about the baffling image was that perhaps the plane wasn’t downed at all but one flying at a very low altitude just above the tree canopy.
Then a second theory emerged that was even stranger.
A “ghost” plane?
Australian safety officials reasoned that a glitch in Google’s satellite software could explain the mysterious plane sitting in the middle of the Queensland rainforest.
“There appears to be a phenomenon called ghost images and that could be what this is,” Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority told the Cairns Post.
The phenomenon of “ghost” images on Google Maps has happened several times before.
In 2016, Google Maps users believed they had spotted a plane pictured at the bottom of Lake Harriet in Montana. Google later announced users had only seen a “ghost” image in Montana, explaining it is a result of a glitch making a composite of several images.
The same phenomenon resulted in a “phantom” island that can be seen off the coast of Australia. According to the Google Maps image, there is a 24-kilometer-long and five-kilometer-wide island – but no landmass actually exists there.
