Has anyone ever seen what looked like the opposite of contrails in front of a jet.?

Question

The other day I saw a jet in the sky with a contrail behind it which in itself was not unusual, but what appeared to be ahead of the jet was what I found very strange and either not seen or never noticed before. This jet was preceded by a faint dark line in the trajectory or the plane's path. It was sort of like the opposite of the contrail behind it, and it was definitely tracing a path that the plane was following. Has anybody else every seen anything like this?

It looked as though there was a faint dark line ahead of the plane to the horizon.

Answer 1

Yes, I have seen this on several occasions. If you notice, it only appears when there are clouds in front of the plane. What you are seeing is the plane's shadow. The conditions have to be just right, i.e. position of the sun in relationship to the plane and a "screen", the clouds, for it to be seen. Puzzled me for a bit, too, and I've been around airplanes all my life.

Answer 2

If the "contrails" were well ahead of the jet, you were most likely looking at a jetway where one jet had just passed and another was flying in the opposite direction on the same jetway with a thousand feet of separation... that may give that effect.

Answer 3

there are two phenomenons i can talk abt one is condensation trails or contrails and the other is wing tip vortices.u can see these wing tip vortices when the a/c pitches suddenly it is due to the sudden increase in the lift if the a/c.it may have been this but its hard to see this phenomenon from ground.flying at 1 mach is prohibited in india so cannot be a shock wave.another posssibility is that the engine must have suffered damage and must be releasing black smoke.

Answer 4

No, but I have seen small contrails from the leading edges of the wing tips projecting forward from planes Ive flown/flown in.

Answer 5

hmmmmm i think the clold thing is correct....