Help Needed to Explain a Strange Phenomenon

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Clarissa

February 20, 2012

I need help from my readers to explain the strange phenomenon I just observed outside. Can you, please, look at the photos and tell me what caused this strange white line in the sky? It causes me intense anxiety because I can’t explain it. For decades, I have been suffering from nightmares where airplanes fall from the sky and when I saw this I immediately imagined a falling airplane. Which gave me an intense panic attack. I’m hyperventilating and shaking right now. And I’m going to go and do some breathing exercises.

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17 responses to “Help Needed to Explain a Strange Phenomenon”

charlesrowley

February 20, 2012

It surely does look like an airplane’s dive. Perhaps a pilot was conducting exercises. Can you tell whether the trail eventually pulled upwards or whether it appears to have hit the ground. Given the distance involved, if the plane had crashed I should have thought you would have seen flames and smoke in the distance.

I hope that you feel better soon. Accidents occasionally happen, though they are rare in the air.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  February 20, 2012
  
  Thank you, Charles Rowley. The trail didn’t pull upwards but it didn’t come all the way to the ground either.
  
  And just tonight I had the airplane nightmare. The funny thing is that I have no fear of being inside an airplane. But I have this terror that it will drop on my head.
  
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Z

February 20, 2012

Couldn’t it be some sort of wind tunnel?

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  February 20, 2012
  
  I thought it might be a tornado at first. But there was no tornado warning and the weather is very windless.
  
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anon

February 20, 2012

Just the trail from an airplane. They’re produced by any functioning plane with jets when the air temperature and moisture content is right- something about the moist air being compressed/heated when going through the turbines causes the water to stick together to become more cloud-like, which then expands when the plane moves on. So you see these less often when there are no clouds at all in the sky, but with those diffuse fuzzy clouds in your pictures, I think that means the conditions are perfect for making contrails. (Wikipedia “contrails” if you want another source.)

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  February 20, 2012
  
  Yes, this looks very much like this contrail thingy. Thank you, I feel better now. I just wonder why I’d never seen anything like this before.
  
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Rob F

February 20, 2012

It’s obviously a contrail. It merely looks like it’s hitting the ground because the earth is round and therefore the horizon “gets in the way” once it’s far enough. (the same effect happens if you watch a ship go over the horizon; the hull disappears first and then the superstructure, ie it goes “below” the horizon.) The clouds “behind” it are cirrocumulus.

Contrails are formed from water vapour that condenses from engine exhaust at cruising altitudes, or from low-pressure wingtip vortexes. If it was from a wingtip vortex, it would be either near landing (in which case you’d probably hear the engines, and see the contrails disappear as altitude increased) or from a high angle of attack (which basically means military aircraft or a stunt plane), in both cases on a day with high humidity. If these contrails are from a cruising airplane (which I suspect since I live relatively close to a major airport and often see contrails from cruising aircraft stretching which look like the ones in the picture) then its a perfectly normal situation. Hence, unless you live practically next door to an airport, seeing contrails means that the planes are flying normally and hence have no chance of dropping on your head. Although easier said than done, seeing such contrails means the plane is flying normally and therefore ought to help you overcome your fear.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  February 20, 2012
  
  Thank you for the explanation, Rob F. I’m very glad I didn’t see the airplane in the process of leaving this contrail because I’d be blogging from the psych ward if I had.
  
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thevenerablecorvex

February 20, 2012

I used to live close to an international airport; I saw maybe five of these every single day of my childhood, so I don’t even notice them anymore.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  February 20, 2012
  
  My parents live close to an airport and whenever we go out for a walk, I become hysterical because there are all those airplanes flying very close to the ground. I know that this is very irrational but I really suffer.
  
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P. rhoeas

February 20, 2012

One time there was a contrail that went kind of up and caught the sun in a weird way so it looked like there was this special glow. Everyone I knew was speculating if it was a missile or rocket launch or what. I think it even made the news. It was a jet contrail. A jet. Contrail. Not an ICB fucking M, FOX-7 news team.

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scratchy888

February 20, 2012

military jet.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  February 20, 2012
  
  Yes, we actually have a military base nearby.
  
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Tim

February 21, 2012

Those are chemtrails, man! Thats how they get into your mind!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemtrail_conspiracy_theory

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  February 21, 2012
  
  Thank you so much for feeding my paranoia, Tim! 😉
  
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Anonymous

September 12, 2012

are you notice craggy clouds over chemtrail? its HAARP testing :D. high radio wave weapon tested by us military. politics in European Union were talking about danger of this, but totalitary government shut up thier mouths. there: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/press/sdp/backg/en/1998/b980209.htm

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XUS79

July 22, 2015

geoengineering

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