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4th August 2023
11:52am BST
A pilot made a 15-mile-long penis-shaped loop in the sky after being asked to divert their flight.
The Lufthansa pilot was flying from Frankfurt to Sicily on July 28 when they were told, mid-flight, to land in Malta instead, according to the air-traffic website Flightradar24.
Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported that the cause was a disruption at the flight's original destination of Catania-Fontanarossa Airport, which had been struggling after a fire damaged the main terminal almost two weeks earlier amid a historic heat wave.
Flightradar24 data showed that, after receiving the request, the Lufthansa aircraft flew over and past Catania before spending about 16 minutes creating a phallic symbol off the eastern coast of Sicily.
Some 35 minutes later, the plane retraced its route over Catania and continued to Malta, Flightradar24 data shows.
It is not known if the pilot intentionally flew in a pattern to create the penis-flight-path.
Insider asked Lufthansa about this, but the airline dodged the question.
A spokesperson told the outlet that wind shear made it impossible to proceed with the landing approach to Catania.
"Therefore, the captain had to fly a holding and made the approach again, but without success. He then flew to Malta, refuelled, and approached Catania from a different direction," they added.
The dick manoeuvre isn't the first time a pilot has created an X-rated image in the sky.
Earlier in the year, an Armed Forces of Malta helicopter seemingly took detours to draw a similar pattern over Malta, Insider noted.
And last year, a US Air Force refuelling aircraft appeared to draw a penis shape near a Syrian city where Russia has a naval base, BuzzFeed News reported. Air Force officials insisted it was coincidental.
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