Large plane circles DOW chemical

I have no idea what to make of this, but here's what happened. It was about 4:30 p.m. CST, I was driving home ( I live maybe 1/2 mile from a DOW chemical plant near Freeport on the Texas gulf coast, about 50 miles from Houston) when I hear a loud plane engine overhead. I look up and see a gigantic four engine plane flying only about 100 feet in the air towards DOW. It was painted a light gray color possibly with a dark gray stripe near the top (not sure about the stripe) there was a bright white flashing light on the tail.

It looked something like this

C-130 Transport

or this
B-52 Bomber


This plane was definately not a jet. I don't know much about planes, but I know that I have lived in this area for at least ten years and never seen a plane that large, and never a plane fly over DOW.

It circled an area of roughly 1/2 mile to 1 mile (It flew almost directly over my house) and made at least 3 passes that I saw. Again, it was only about 100 or so feet in the air (maybe a little more, but it was definately low). I saw a very small trail of some dark gray substance (Smoke?) coming from one side of the plane. I didn't think it was large enough to be smoke from engine problems. After the three passes (circles) that I saw it make, it took of almost due north and hasn't been back since.

I saw what seemed to be a pole on the nose of the plane (Gun barrell?). I still can't get over how freakin' huge this thing was. If somebody can help me find out what kind of plane it is or why it was flying over DOW, it would be greatly appreciated. We've had an occasional helicopter or possibly a jet really high up, but this thing was gigantic and very low for any type of plane.

I live north of Port Lavaca, TX, inland about 60 miles. I have seen a similar plane
two or three times.
It appears grey with some orange markings. I thought it was twin engine
but I could be wrong.
What caught my attention was that it is flying vey low, maybe two hundred feet.
It seems too large a plane to be checking pipeline right of ways unless there is some type of electronic equipment that is now used from the air. I don't have a knowledge about inspections from the air.
There is a radar site in this area. I had wondered if that site had something to do
with the plane's flight path. Are there not rules as to the altitude planes are to fly?
Anyway I wonder if there is some connection to the events.
My last siteing was about two weeks ago.

These sitings could be related, i'm not sure. I just know that the one I saw definately had four engines. I have never seen a plane this large before, not even during the airshows they have about 5-10 miles from my house. They only have about one show a year, and you can only see the planes if you are near the airport near Angleton. There is a small airport about 5 or 6 miles from my house, but I don't think there's any way that this plane could safely land there. If it was landing at the airport, why did it make three circles directly over DOW, that would be the only problem I could see with it landing at the airport. The air port isn't close to the city, and DOW is on the opposite side of the city in relation to the airport.

I haven't seen or heard anything since yesterday. We occasionally have a small plane spray pesticides for mosquitoes, but the plane I saw yesterday could swallow that one.

Thanks for the input on your situation as well. Hopefully one day we can know what was going on with that plane. One thing I do know is that when I can get enough money for a video camera, I will be taking it with me wherever I go.

Probably military aircrafts keeping a close eye on those chemical plants. Because if toxic gases was ever to leak into your neighbor, Dow Chemical scumbags would never let the public know, they would dodge the issue for years and sue you if you tried to do anything about it. (web.amnesty.org...)

Hopefully a B-52 Bomber would turn the building into a glass parking lot if one day Dow Chemical showed a critical lack of ethics. Yeah I know, wishful thinking on my part.

The pole on the nose would have been an antenna for communications and the grey substance could have been exhaust fumes, just like old cars, some engines produce more smoke than others meaning that it could have only been visible on one.

I don't know what it was doing there though

Originally posted by ufia
Probably military aircrafts keeping a close eye on those chemical plants. Because if toxic gases was ever to leak into your neighbor, Dow Chemical scumbags would never let the public know, they would dodge the issue for years and sue you if you tried to do anything about it. (web.amnesty.org...)

Hopefully a B-52 Bomber would turn the building into a glass parking lot if one day Dow Chemical showed a critical lack of ethics. Yeah I know, wishful thinking on my part.

I know that DOW couldn't care less about the people around it, and yes hopefully one day I can come back here and there will be a glass parking lot for me to enjoy. That would be much better than any kind of plant. If that ever did happen, I just hope that the people would have time to get away (highly unlikely).

Today, i actually saw one of those one or two seater planes fly over, and at first i thought it was a large bird. This is when i realized the sheer size of that gargantuan beast that flew over the other day.

Thank you all for your input on this subject, it is greatly appreciated. Next time i hope i will have a camera with me.