Flight tracking map doesn’t show chemtrail planes

A post on Instagram with more than 2,000 likes shows a flight-tracking map of part of the UK covered in short, parallel flight paths.

Text overlaid onto the image says “CONTRAILS OR CH3MTRAILS?”, while part of the caption says “UK 2023 Flight Patterns”. 

The post (which has also been shared on Facebook) appears to suggest that the unusual-looking routes shared on the map are linked to so-called ‘chemtrails’, a conspiracy theory which claims that the white lines seen behind planes are actually chemicals being deliberately sprayed into the atmosphere.

These white lines in the sky are actually contrails—water vapour produced by aeroplane engines freezes at high altitude, forming long thin lines of cloud.

In reality the flight paths shown on the