low flying aircraft flying outside normal flight path

about 2 hours ago my wife, my daughter and I were outside pulling up dead sunflower plants when we heard a low flying aircraft, I immediately looked up because aircraft NEVER fly that low around here. I saw what looked like a commercial passenger jet with 2 engines flying due west directly into the setting sun, again that NEVER happens around here,all the commercial flights fly north south flight paths at high altitude.

my daughter was just visiting so she didn`t even look up because it was just a plane,so I yelled to her to take a picture of that plane, she took 3 pictures of it with her cell phone as it was moving away.
I immediately came inside and looked on flightradar24.com and it showed that there no planes within 50 miles of here.

I believe that flightradar24.com doesn`t show military flights so I have to assume that it was a military flight but it looked like a commercial airliner.

could it have been a commercial airliner chartered by the military and that`s why it wasn`t on flightradar?

without giving away my exact location the plane was flying about 60 miles south of Washington D.C. and had just passed over the eastern shore of the chesapeake bay and was heading due west out over the bay.
I`ve been living here for 22 years, and living in this house for 15 years and I`ve never seen a commercial passenger jet flying that low or on that
flight path, and it wasn`t on flightradar24.com so I`m sure it wasn`t a regular passenger jet.

when I looked at the pictures that she took it looked like the landing gear was down, but I didn`t say anything about it because I thought it was just the shadows or something, but when I gave her, her phone back she asked, why is the landing gear down, I answered, I don`t know the closest airport west of here is in Washington.


well, anyhow,here`s the pictures, that bush in the foreground is about 18-20 feet tall.










I`m wondering what that was all about?

a reply to: Tardacus

Appears to be at least a mile up. So not that low. If they have an emergency they break their flight plan , seeking the nearest airport or runway available.

What airport is nearest along that direction?

a reply to: intrptr


dulles in Washington would be the closest I believe, that`s about 150 miles northwest of here.

I was surprised and disappointed that it didn`t show up on flightradar24.com

for around here that`s low the only commercial planes we "see" are little black specks with contrails off to the east heading north and south.

we see A-10`s a lot flying east/west ovals but even they fly higher than this plane did.

originally posted by: Tardacus
a reply to: intrptr


dulles in Washington would be the closest I believe, that`s about 150 miles northwest of here.

I was surprised and disappointed that it didn`t show up on flightradar24.com

for around here that`s low the only commercial planes we "see" are little black specks with contrails off to the east heading north and south.

we see A-10`s a lot flying east/west ovals but even they fly higher than this plane did.

How about a Boeing 7737 chartered to a Racing team going to Richmond? A Part 91 chater or corporate may fly under VFR rules and would not show on flightradar or flightaware. The aircraft was either a 737 or A-320 series.

a reply to: Tardacus

What time local?