photo analysis...

I would be willing to guess that is a reflection of the plane in the water rather than a shadow, explaining the color and shadow angles. The altitude of the plane could be determined if we knew the length of the plane and then measured the angles to the reflection, research being the obligatory basis to solution and a bent in the direction of mathematical skills. As for the shortest route to the Island, I would hazard that there are two scenarios: first a one way ticket and a short swim after landing, or second, parachute (self explanatory). No way to determine without speculation the origin of the flight since it is well known that airliners seldom fly straight to their destination.

I think the ¨shadow¨ is caused by the different bands not all taken at the same time.

The lighter blue image might the position of the plane when the infrared or other band was taken slightly after the others.

Howdy all

It looks like a normal but low approach to the airport--They would turn to the nothwest and land shorlty after this photo.

The shadow? I would guess that is a reflection from the sun not a shadow--Shortly before noon with reflected light from the sea, hitting the underside of the airplane and reflecting back at a normal angle into the sea where it is visible again(Where the shaow is, I don't know).

I don't know if I buy this--Just "spit balling".

I agree. It is definitely in the correct position for a later time, and in the wrong position to be a shadow.

I don't know about the blue shadow

To go to Frioul islands which Chateau d'If is part of, you simply take a boat from the "Vieux Port" -Old Harbour- in Marseilles.

Going over the Frioul islands is the normal approach route to land at Marignagne i.e. Marseilles airport when there is Northern and Western winds. So this flight might come from Paris, Manchester or Algiers or anywhere else.

It's only 5-10mn to go from If to Marignagne, so altitude is no going to be high but still higher than the mountains between Firoul islands and the airports i.e. 400m or about.

Patrice

Some good answers here, but I feel that most likely the reason that the plane appears to be near the ground is that this is a Satellite picture and the camera was relatively far away from both the plane and the earth below and that the plane might be at say 10,000 meters, but the Satellite is probably at around (if a geostationary satellite) at 36,000 kms, wich is 36,000,000 meters.......that is a diference of 1:3600! So no wonder that the plane appears to be "grazing" the ground.

The distance from the ground to the plane being relatively tiny in comparison of the distance between camera and plane!!

This same effect is often used in films, so that say a cowboy on a horse is silhouetted against a setting Sun, the camera might need to be several miles away from the cowboy so that the resulting image shows a huge Sun, with the cowboy in silhouette in front of it!!!

A high magnification lense is also needed of course!!!!

Images of trains rushing towards the camera do the same, but of course there is a curve in the track near to the camera, that you never see of course, it just gives the impression that you/the viewer (the camera!) are going to be run over any second!

I couldn't find it this morning, but somewhere near the California-Oregon border in the region of Klamath to Tulelake there is (or at least used to be) an image of a KC135 tanker refueling a cargo plane (on Google Earth, of course). I don't recall whether any shadow/reflection was visible, but I fly a lot, and have observed the plane' shadow many times. In order for a shadow to be that sharply defined, the plane could not be more than a couple hundred feet in the air, if that, so I agree with others that it is a reflection, not a shadow, in which case the plane could be much higher.

"Is this a quicker way to get to the island? Is this a tour jet taking tourists on a whirlwind tour of the the european sights?" This is a bit of humour on my part.

Chris

This photo was obviously taken from another airplane. Either that, or it is one huge plane! I think the "shadow" is an artifact of the camera or lens. A shadow, I would expect to be darker than the surroundings.

Not sure if this is material to the discussion, but the A/C in question is not a B727. It appears to be a twin like a B737, 767, 757 or given the location it could be any one of the small twin Airbus configurations. Maybe that'll help narrow the focus on operators in the area w/r/ to the A/C route.

If you Google Earth Chateau D'if you can find this very image. If you zoom out, it looks to me as if the plane is lining up for a landing at Saint-Victoret. Moving the pointer over the mountains in the path to the airport, the mountain elevation seem to top out at about 1000 feet. Now I have an issue with the Eye Altitude measurement though since it says the image as it appears in this blog seems to at about a 1000 feet eye level. We is much higher than that. And to me, the sun is in the correct place for a shadow. It could be on a thin layer of clouds; if you've ever flown and been peering out the window when the sun is just overhead and watched the shadow on clouds below. It looks like that to me.