At first it looks like the chilling remains of a plane that met its end at the bottom of a lake in Minnesota.

The mystery of the large twin-engine jet that appeared at the bottom of 26-metre deep Lake Harriet on Google Earth was compounded when staff from the surrounding park told local media that to their knowledge, “there’s no plane in the lake.”

But the conundrum was solved as it emerged that the plane appeared  in the lake because of its proximity to Minneapolis—Saint Paul International Airport and the process that Google Earth uses to generate aerial imagery.

“Each satellite image you see on the map is actually a compilation of several images,” a Google spokesperson said. “Fast-moving objects like planes often show up in only one of the many images we use for a given area. When this happens, faint remnants of the fast-moving object can sometimes be seen.”

A popular leisure spot – the 335- acre lake is a base for yachting and is surrounded by cycling and walking trails – it also sees frequent overhead air traffic, as it lies in the flight path of Minneapolis—Saint Paul International Airport.

More than 400,000 planes take off and land each year at the base, increasing the chances that rogue planes appear in mysterious locations when Google  “stitches” photos together to create  apparently seamless views of the world.

A similar eerie image also appeared in two other nearby lakes, according to the The Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Lake Nokomis, which is within five miles of the airport, and Lake Snelling also seemed to be the final murky resting place for jets.

Google Earth now appears to have rectified the issue as the lakes’ sub-aqua passenger jets no longer show, even if internet users zoom in closely.

This is not the first time planes have appeared in strange and mysterious places on Google Earth. In 2010 a large jet appeared in a garden in Paraguay, while another aeroplane seemed to be resting over a motorway in Brooklyn, New York.