Helicopter called out for rude-shaped flight path

Eyebrows were raised and sniggers were heard when a helicopter on the other side of the world served up this distinctive sight.

One would say it is a ballsy stunt – but apparently the phallic shape was not deliberate.

An Armed Forces of Malta’s (AFM) helicopter was responsible for appearing to create a penis-shaped flight pattern over the island of Comino in Malta on Monday.

The incident left many in the aviation industry with their eyebrows raised, with the act first being spotted by flightradar24.com.

The popular website tweeted: “Meanwhile, in Malta …”

According to the manufacturer’s site, it is “a helicopter that can adapt to multiple missions” and boasts “superior performance”.

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A ballsy stunt … Picture: Flightradar24

The helicopter did a series of elaborate loops that, when viewed on a map, formed the distinctive shape.

Many assumed the stunt was deliberate, however the AFM told the Times of Malta the flight pattern had been “printed out of context”.

“The flight tracking shown was segmented as the helicopter was flying low altitude and did not show the completed flight path,” a AFM spokesperon said.

The post has attracted plenty of attention online with more than 10,000 likes and hundreds of comments.

Dushanbe also today pic.twitter.com/6zONMfKUIT

— caltononline (@caltononline) January 15, 2023

“I was on the little island where it was drawing it, we thought it was searching for something, guess not ahaha,” one person wrote.

“I hope that was planned. Not just a random fly around. Excellent,” a second person added.

A third joked: “Seems like another artist at work!”

Someone else posted a flight map of a plane in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, also appearing to make a similar shape on January 11.

And here another ‘sky penis’ was spotted in Cyprus last November. Picture: Flightradar24

According to a blog on the flightradar24 website, while unusual flight patterns can be the result of aerial surveys, flights used to calibrate instrument landing systems and pilot training, sometimes the reason for the flight routes is less clear.

Flightradar24 shared a similar sight back in November when a couple of US Air Force pilots appeared to have “drawn” a penis in the sky.

The cheeky creation was spotted near Tartus – the Kremlin’s naval facility in the Mediterranean.

It is believed the stunt, which went viral at the time, was carried out by an aerial refuelling plane crew aboard a KC-135 Stratotanker.

One flight expert told Times Now: “They were on a refuelling mission that usually is just a long oval, repeated over and over …. so they added the ‘balls’. No extra taxpayer money spent.”