The National Police Air Service (NPAS) has denied that a penis-shaped flight path traced by one of its helicopters over Hampshire was intentional. The flight path, which appeared on aircraft tracking websites, drew criticism from a local resident who described the aircraft circling low over houses for several minutes on Monday evening.
Resident reports low-flying helicopter
Gordon Bird, 53, from Ancells Farm in Fleet, said his daughter was woken by the helicopter, which he claimed was circling for at least 15 minutes over houses. When he checked the flight path online, he said he was left ‘shocked’ after seeing the shape it had made. A tracker shows a shape resembling genitalia above Blackbushe Airport.
Bird told the BBC: ‘The actual buzzing around our estate lasted for 15 or 20 minutes, the actual drawing of the phallus … took about half an hour, and the overall flight, as per flight radar-type websites, show it as being an hour. I’m not angry, I am upset at the waste of resources.’
NPAS explains the flight
NPAS said its flights do not follow any planned paths and that it was assisting police officers on the ground tracking a car refusing to stop. A spokesman for NPAS, which covers England and Wales, said: ‘Flights do not follow defined or predetermined flight plans as they, by their very nature, are dynamic and respond to ever changing, and unpredictable, circumstances on the ground. The flight was conducted for a legitimate policing purpose, in support of Thames Valley Police.’
Previous tracking stunts
There have been incidents of flight tracking used to draw shapes on purpose. In August, a pilot flew in an eight-mile-long formation above Clacton-on-Sea to draw a bin in a nod to Count Binface, who was challenging Nigel Farage in the snap by-election. Another aviation enthusiast pulled a stunt in Poland when he proposed to his fiancée by creating the words ‘marry me’ on the Flightradar24 website.
The Finnish Air Force made headlines earlier this year after cadet pilots drew phallus-shaped flight paths in central Finland. The force said the pilots were students from the military reserve course and that they would face ‘disciplinary’ measures.
