'Ghost' Plane Spotted On Google Maps In Australian Forest

Eagle-eyed viewers spotted what appeared to be an intact jetliner nestled in the woods in northern Australia, according to the Daily Mail. The satellite image on Google Maps shows what looks like an Airbus A320 or Boeing 737 facing south in a forest about 155 miles south of Port Douglas.

The plane did not have any known markings in the image and was west of known flight paths in the region.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau told the Cairns Post that there are no reports of missing jetliners and suggested that the aircraft was a "ghost image."

"There appears to be a phenomenon called ghost images, and that could be what this is," officials told the news outlet.

While Google has not commented on the most recent satellite image, it previously explained a similar sighting in 2016 when eagle-eyed users spotted what appeared to be a sunken plane in a Minneapolis lake.

"In short: each satellite image you see on the map is actually a compilation of several images," a Google spokeswoman told Star Tribune at the time. "Fast-moving objects like planes often show up in only one of the many images we use for a given area. When this happens, faint remnants of the fast-moving object can sometimes be seen."