Virgin Australia slammed by conspiracy theorists after sharing photo of rare cloud phenomenon

Virgin Australia has been slammed by conspiracy theorists for "supporting chemtrails" after sharing a photo of a unique cloud formation over the Great Australian Bight.

The photo, taken by passenger Ilya Katsman on a flight from Perth to Adelaide, shows thin rows of clouds lying side-by-side against a deep blue sky.

The rare phenomenon is known as ‘morning glory’ clouds or roll clouds, but some online viewers had their own explanation for the formation.

When Virgin Australia shared the photo on their Facebook page, they were bombarded with comments from outraged users who believed the clouds were chemtrails – white trails of chemicals left in the sky by planes that many believe are designed to brainwash or cause sickness to the public.

“I am astounded that you are so blatantly showing your involvment and support of Chemtrails. Deliberately dumbing down and poisoning people and this beautiful planet. And then the icing on the cake, trying to use your blatant disregard for life as a pretty marketing campaign. Shame on you Virgin,” one woman wrote.

“You have got to be joking me! This reminds me of the 1950’s when 9 out of 10 doctors recommended lucky strike cigarettes. Passing geo engineering off as natural cloud formations is disgusting. I’ll never ever fly Virgin and will make sure I encourage others not too either. Branson must be making a truck load out of big pharma to stoop this low,” another said.

“Sick sick sick!! You call this view good? No, we are not all brain dead,” a man commented.

But not all viewers held the same opinion.

“Oh man the Virgin Australia social team must have been in hysterics this week. It's the people above that truly make a job entertaining!” one man wrote.

Rolling clouds tend to occur in high humidity, when ocean temperatures are cool and temperatures over the land are warm.

The Gulf of Carpentaria in Queensland is a popular setting for the unusual clouds.