Explained: Photo of 747 with Contrails Only on One Side [Fake, April Fool]

Donnn

New Member
Just saw this posted on facebook.

Anyone got an idea what is going on here?

6421f76c4956aca98338621ca68f5849.jpg
 
Just saw this posted on facebook.
Anyone got an idea what is going on here?

It looks like two of the engines aren't running or maybe have been throttled back to a very low power level. Perhaps this was done during a test flight.
 
Agreed, test flight. The plane is "crabbing" across the sky due to uneven thrust. That's why the contrail is skewed to one side. The contrail is more or less straight, but the plane is angled to the side. It's kind of sliding sideways as it moves forward. Here is a YouTube link to an illustration:
Source: https://youtu.be/dZ74KE90vOY
 
This is the oldest source I could find (1st April).
https://www.instagram.com/aeroplanesinsta/p/Bvt0ZHkBOBl/
External Quote:
Did you know that pilots sometimes choose to shut down engines to ensure balance, for example when more people are seated on the right hand side of the plane? By lowering or shutting down engine power, in this case engine number one and two (left hand side), pilots control the balance and make sure the plane does not roll, both for safety and economic reasons.
 
This is the oldest source I could find (1st April).
https://www.instagram.com/aeroplanesinsta/p/Bvt0ZHkBOBl/
External Quote:
Did you know that pilots sometimes choose to shut down engines to ensure balance, for example when more people are seated on the right hand side of the plane? By lowering or shutting down engine power, in this case engine number one and two (left hand side), pilots control the balance and make sure the plane does not roll, both for safety and economic reasons.

That looks more like someone joking or trolling. I don't think this is any kind of standard operating procedure, but may perhaps be done by a test pilot.
 
This is the oldest source I could find (1st April).
https://www.instagram.com/aeroplanesinsta/p/Bvt0ZHkBOBl/
External Quote:
Did you know that pilots sometimes choose to shut down engines to ensure balance, for example when more people are seated on the right hand side of the plane? By lowering or shutting down engine power, in this case engine number one and two (left hand side), pilots control the balance and make sure the plane does not roll, both for safety and economic reasons.

That explanation makes zero sense for the plane in the photo. Maybe on a 4 seater little plane, but not a 747.
 
It's possible it's a fake, look at the region on the right of the image under the engines.
Metabunk 2019-05-19 11-20-28.jpg


It's trivially easy to fake.
[compare]
Metabunk 2019-05-19 11-29-21.jpg

Metabunk 2019-05-19 11-27-38.jpg

[/compare]

Not conclusive, but it seems like such an interesting shot would show up elsewhere in higher resolution.
 
This is the oldest source I could find (1st April).
https://www.instagram.com/aeroplanesinsta/p/Bvt0ZHkBOBl/
External Quote:
Did you know that pilots sometimes choose to shut down engines to ensure balance, for example when more people are seated on the right hand side of the plane? By lowering or shutting down engine power, in this case engine number one and two (left hand side), pilots control the balance and make sure the plane does not roll, both for safety and economic reasons.

With the date and explanation, I'm leaning towards an April Fool's joke.
 
I think the picture is fake
da44b19c3daa9874637dd332d6e15479.jpg

c2d1a4e7aef311a73b5e5d769e360d44.jpg


And as Mick said, there is definetly something strange under the left engines
7be2a604d78152208d46daab169fc327.jpg
 
Orientation of the plane suggests that it was filmed from another plane, most likely from the cockpit. Were the photo true, it would definitely have caused a stir in the aviation-related social networks, yet there was none as far as I am aware.
 
I would think that the easiest way to fake this (assuming you can get this view of the plane with 4 contrails) would be to copy a portion of the background and use it to paint over the left engine contrails.

From the JPEG error analysis shown above it's not clear this was done. Rather the entire background seems to show a suspicious blocky structure which would seem to suggest that the entire background might be fake.
 
I think the picture is fake
da44b19c3daa9874637dd332d6e15479.jpg
Artifacts like this one around an object are common at high compression and do not mean it is fake.

The region under the right side wing is different though.

I suspect it has simply been saved at high compression to hide evidence of tampering.
 
From the JPEG error analysis shown above it's not clear this was done. Rather the entire background seems to show a suspicious blocky structure which would seem to suggest that the entire background might be fake.
That's just normal compression artifacts. The key clue is the different region under the wing on the right of the image. However, it does not extend all the way down, and is not conclusive.
 
someone could just ask on the Instagram post. Last year he posted something else chemtrailers latched onto, and in the comments he said something (major paraphrasing) along the lines of he is just messing with chemtrailers. I don't remember the specifics of the pic but I shared that with the woman spreading it (either FB or YouTube, I don't remember) and she said "thanks." Anyway, he/they will likely answer a "is this photoshopped?" question.
 
That's just normal compression artifacts.

I don't think the very coarse block structure is normal. I tried the analysis on a different image and didn't see anything like that, only fine scale graininess similar to what you see on this image in the plane and contrail areas of the photo.
 
I don't think the very coarse block structure is normal. I tried the analysis on a different image and didn't see anything like that, only fine scale graininess similar to what you see on this image in the plane and contrail areas of the photo.
It's perfectly normal for an image saved at high compression. Try this one:
Boeing-747-Contrail-low-1200.jpg
 
It's perfectly normal for an image saved at high compression. Try this one:

OK, I guess the underlying cause of the coarse background structure in both images are variations in faint clouds which are difficult to see in the original images but are amplified by the JPEG error analysis.
 
OK, I guess the underlying cause of the coarse background structure in both images are variations in faint clouds which are difficult to see in the original images but are amplified by the JPEG error analysis.
More like the natural gradient of the low sky, and that alone is not causing the coarse background structure, it's the saving at a low JPEG setting that does that. You can see it in the original posted image, and more so with a simple contrast tweak.

JPEG error analysis is often misleading, and I'd encourage people not to draw conclusions from it unless they really understand what is going on.
 
Here's one I saw today.

1745751641881.png


This is a photoshopped version of a 2007 Getty Images stock photo.

1745751682946.png



At first glance there seems to be a weird artifact where the rear of the fuselage doesn't line up with the rest of the body. But zooming in it is clear that it's just the vertical stabiliser peeking out from behind the body of the plane.

1745751773899.png


Interestingly there also seems to be mast drain trail visible there, which was also removed by whoever edited it!
 
OK, while we are all here. what could be causing this? I suppose it might be faked, but the diagonal wisps of smoke/vapor by the engines make me suspect the plane is sliding sideways quite a bit -- but then I'd expect the contrails to be slanting off diagonally as well. My brain can't wrap itself around this one, so I am recruiting more and better brains!

jet-contrails-aloft-stockcake.jpg

SOurce: https://stockcake.com/i/jet-contrails-aloft_487333_1026011
 
OK, while we are all here. what could be causing this? I suppose it might be faked, but the diagonal wisps of smoke/vapor by the engines make me suspect the plane is sliding sideways quite a bit -- but then I'd expect the contrails to be slanting off diagonally as well. My brain can't wrap itself around this one, so I am recruiting more and better brains!

View attachment 79765
SOurce: https://stockcake.com/i/jet-contrails-aloft_487333_1026011
Almost certainly fake, probably AI

There's a few on stockcake

IMG_1377.png
 
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Well poot, I totally missed where it said AI up there. (Insert AI image of "Boy is my face red" here.)

But wow, I'm more primed than many to suspect AI, and it never crossed my mind. That's... worrisome, thinking about the world and all...
 
Well poot, I totally missed where it said AI up there. (Insert AI image of "Boy is my face red" here.)

But wow, I'm more primed than many to suspect AI, and it never crossed my mind. That's... worrisome, thinking about the world and all...
Hey I wasn't 100% (on my phone) but there's clues that should have sealed the deal. Look at the wings:
2025-04-27_10-21-01.jpg
 
Look at the wings:
Oh double poot! :oops:
I already felt dumb enough, man!

But more seriously, there may be a lesson there for me and anybody else reading -- I was so focused on the anomaly of the contrails that I didn't scrutinize the whole image, which is where the answers were. They say the Devil is in the details, the trick sometimes is to look at the details not just of the odd bit (why are those contrails way over there?) but also at the part that is not, at first glance, all that interesting (it's another plane, why should I look at that? Oh, because it is obviously fake if you look at it!) Now that I look at it, the details in the livery around the tail also look off...
 
Searching for "contrails" on Stockcake produces an endless stream of AI crap, including this one.
On further review, I think EVERYTHING on Stockcake is AI. I searched for Apollo astronaut, kite and (on a whim) "helicopter lifting an egg."

No images returned looked real, including this fine polydactyl explorer with two American-ish flags on his sleeve,
spacewalk-above-earth-stockcake.jpg


and this impossibility (though you might have to take my word for it)
Screenshot 2025-04-27 161608.jpg


and THIS extremely believable image of an elephant being lifted by a helicopter (apparently they did not have any with eggs...)
elephant-airborne-lift-stockcake.jpg


Interesting business model, in an era where anybody can generate anything on their own...
 
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Were you focussed on the missing main event (said egg), and overlooked the secondary fact of the missing helicopter?
Obviously the helicopter is upside down, but the 5th blade is missing, and tying an elephant to the rotor shaft feels like it won't be a recipe for success. :-p
(Yes, I noticed the first time.)
 
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