Google Maps Shows Downed Plane In The Middle Of Australian Rainforest

Google Maps captured what appeared to be a downed passenger plane in the middle of a rainforest in Australia, but authorities believe this may have been the result of a glitch.

The satellite mapping service showed a fully intact airliner — which appears to be an Airbus A320 or Boeing 737 — lying in Queensland's Cardwell Range, The Independent reported.

However, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said that it was not aware of any missing aircraft carrying passengers.

What appeared in Cardwell Range on Google Maps was likely a glitch, the national transport safety investigator said.

"There appears to be a phenomenon called ghost images and that could be what this is," the ATSB said.

Google, which the outlet asked for comment on the matter, has yet to confirm if this was the case.

It is likely that the supposed passenger jet that appeared in Cardwell Range was flying at a very low altitude, which gave off the impression that it was on the ground, according to the report.

As each satellite image displayed on Google Maps is a compilation of several images, faint remnants of fast-moving objects like planes can sometimes be seen on the platform as they only show up in one of the photos, former Google spokeswoman Susan Cadrecha told Minnesota newspaper Star-Tribune.

The spokeswoman provided the explanation after Google Maps showed what appeared to be a ghostly image of a passenger plane submerged in Lake Harriet in Minneapolis, Minnesota, back in 2016.

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board said that there was no plane in the lake, and officials also did not have any record of a plane crash in the area.

In a similar story, a user on Reddit discovered what he claimed was a crashed unidentified flying object (UFO) using another Google service, Google Earth.

User dansterdj believed he discovered a strangely shaped object on Starbuck Island in Kiribati, a Pacific nation located northeast of Australia.

"Visible on Google Earth showing a massive trail behind the object indicating high velocity and great amount of energy to go that far," he wrote.

It is unclear what the object truly was, but dansterdj suggested that it was a "crashed UFO," which sparked discussions among his fellow conspiracy theorists.

"Doesn't look as much like an impact as it does like it was rolled or dragged there," one Reddit user commented.