From your description, it is exactly what JoshF stated; a contrail shadow.
The thickness of the shadow is going to be affected by the thickness of the contrail itself, and the angle of the sun. Also the presence of atmospheric ice or haze can make them look even stranger.

I fly from the uk to amsterdam and vice versa every week, and a couple of weeks ago when we were coming to the dutch shore i just happened to look out of the window and seen a plane with no markings on the tail heading the opposite direction, with a trail of black smoke being emitted from the back, almost as bad as a display jet...

I thought it was strange at the time, firstly as it was so close to us (hard to judge the distance in the air though), secondly the black smoke and thirdly the lack of markings...

Originally posted by defcon5
From your description, it is exactly what JoshF stated; a contrail shadow.
The thickness of the shadow is going to be affected by the thickness of the contrail itself, and the angle of the sun. Also the presence of atmospheric ice or haze can make them look even stranger.

Thanks for the explanation.


As I stated, I've never seen this before (nor has anyone that we showed the pics to), so it was a bit unsettling.
The straightness of the lines just made it look stranger!

Originally posted by GeordieLegend
I fly from the uk to amsterdam and vice versa every week, and a couple of weeks ago when we were coming to the dutch shore i just happened to look out of the window and seen a plane with no markings on the tail heading the opposite direction, with a trail of black smoke being emitted from the back, almost as bad as a display jet...

I thought it was strange at the time, firstly as it was so close to us (hard to judge the distance in the air though), secondly the black smoke and thirdly the lack of markings...

edit on 26-1-2012 by GeordieLegend because: (no reason given)

Thats more likely a shadow from a cloud above falling on the contrail, I do lots of flight in and from the UK as well.

Originally posted by GeordieLegend
I fly from the uk to amsterdam and vice versa every week, and a couple of weeks ago when we were coming to the dutch shore i just happened to look out of the window and seen a plane with no markings on the tail heading the opposite direction, with a trail of black smoke being emitted from the back, almost as bad as a display jet...

I thought it was strange at the time, firstly as it was so close to us (hard to judge the distance in the air though), secondly the black smoke and thirdly the lack of markings...

edit on 26-1-2012 by GeordieLegend because: (no reason given)

I saw the same thing flying from Germany to Denmark durring the G20.As someone above commented about shadows from clouds above.Not the case,we were well above the cloud line and I viewed it horizontally.This was the broadest band I have ever seen and was jet black as if the engines were on fire.