Despite what it might look like, the U.S. Air Force says a penis-shaped flight path made by a KC-135 Stratotanker near a Russian military base was not intentional.
"We're aware of the incident and are talking with the KC-135 crew to determine the details," an Air Force spokesperson told Military.com. "At this time, we do not believe the crew acted inappropriately, flying a refueling orbit consistent with requirements that met the needs of receiver aircraft."
The path outline shows a long oval with two circles at one end.
The phallic-like flight path, which appeared to be pointing at a Russian naval base in Syria, was discovered last week by people checking flight paths on Flightradar24, a website that tracks planes around the globe.
The Air Force spokesperson told Military.com that the crew was flying a refueling flight between the Middle Eastern island country of Cyprus and the coastal Syrian city of Tartus, where Russia has a naval base.
It's not the first time military pilots have been accused of drawing phallic shapes in the sky.
In 2019, six Air Force pilots flying F-35 Joint Strike Fighters were engaged in a training exercise in Arizona when they accidentally created contrails resembling male genitalia, Fox News reported.
A spokesperson explained the peculiar path as a coincidence, saying "there was no nefarious or inappropriate behavior during the training flight."
In another incident that was apparently intentional, two Navy aviators were disciplined after a skywriting a giant penis over Washington State in 2017, Military.com reported.
The Navy confirmed that the drawing was exactly what it appeared to be and called the actions of the aircrew "wholly unacceptable and antithetical to Navy core values."
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