The hammer has come down on a group of Finnish Air Force trainee pilots who deviated from their flight patterns to draw two giant penises in the sky.
Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets were conducting training exercises out of Jyväskylä — about 170 miles north of Helsinki — at around 7:30 a.m. local time on April 13, when at least four planes followed flight patterns that traced the shape of genitalia, according to the Finnish tabloid Iltalehti.
The startling imagery was captured live on the publicly viewable flight-tracking website Flightradar as screenshots of the crude patterns quickly spread across social media.
In addition to the phallic shapes, the pilots also drew two hearts during the training flight.
The Finnish Air Force confirmed to the outlet that the flights were conducted by students from the flight reserve officer course and condemned the trainee pilots’ behavior.
Military officials said the pilots were swiftly disciplined for their actions and that an investigation has since been launched into the incident.
“The Air Force requires soldiers to follow good manners and rules of conduct, and if these are deviated from, it will be responded to in an appropriate manner,” an official told the Finnish news outlet YLE.
“The Air Force requires soldiers to follow good manners and rules of conduct, and if these are deviated from, it will be responded to in an appropriate manner.”
The Air Force noted that the flights were conducted for training purposes within a designated flight zone and did not disrupt regular flight patterns.
Finland’s pilots are far from the first military aviators to get caught drawing phallic shapes in the sky during training exercises.
In 2017, a US Navy EA-18G Growler jet crew used the jet’s contrails to draw a giant penis over Central Washington that was visible from the ground — because, as one crew member put it, it “would be awesome.”
“I could definitely draw one, that would be easy,” the pilot bragged.
Navy officials originally recommended disciplinary hearings for the pilots but ultimately issued “non-punitive letters of instruction.”
A US Air Force pilot was caught drawing a flight pattern that appeared to resemble a penis in 2022 in the waters between Cyprus and Lebanon — though the military insisted it was a total accident.
In 2023, an Armed Forces of Malta helicopter was found to have flown a flight pattern that appeared to resemble a penis over the island of Comino in Malta.
