Broken wing Satellite image shows passenger jet in the middle of the Black Forest

In the satellite view, Google Maps shows a passenger jet with a broken wing in the middle of the Black Forest. However, no aircraft can be found at the location in question. Google has no explanation for this.

An airliner is lying in the forest in the middle of the Black Forest - according to Google's satellite image. Even more confusing: part of the left wing is broken off. The Lufthansa lettering can be guessed.

The trees around the Boeing 747 appear intact, there are no traces of a crash or an emergency landing. The image is reminiscent of photos of aircraft that have crashed in remote forests, around which the vegetation has long since recovered.

What happened there, between Schramberg and Heiligenbronn in Baden-Württemberg, on a hill called Sulgen? Why did nobody notice anything?

There's no plane in the forest

The answer to the second question is simple: because there is no plane there. An employee of the district tells the radio station Antenne 1: "I can assure you that there is no plane in the forest on Sulgen."

A Lufthansa spokesperson uses the satellite image as an opportunity for a joke: "We parked the plane there. Unfortunately, one of the wings broke off. But it doesn't matter, the plane won't be used again anyway." He then adds that nobody at Lufthansa knows how the plane ended up on the Google image.

Google tells the radio editors that they cannot provide explanations for individual cases. What is certain is that the image does not correspond to reality.

Jet could have "slipped in between"

t-Online summarizes statements by experts who explain that the Google satellite images are composed of individual images. An image from another location could have "slipped in".

One user even claims that an Air Berlin plane can be seen that was photographed approaching Stuttgart Airport. This airline went bankrupt in 2017. It is not known how long the plane has been lying in the Google forest with a broken wing.