Police air service denies phallic flight path was deliberate

The police air service has been forced to deny that one of its pilots deliberately drew a penis on their flight path after a complaint from a resident this week.

Gordon Bird, 53, who lives in Ancells Farm, Fleet, Hampshire, said he was “shocked” after looking up the flight path of the helicopter that woke his two-year-old daughter late on Monday night.

The father said the police helicopter had been flying in circles for at least 15 minutes over their estate, which prompted him to search up the aircraft online.

He 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.”

But the National Police Air Service has insisted that it was not deliberate, saying flights do not follow predetermined flight plans, and the helicopter was conducted “for a legitimate policing purpose”.

It told the broadcaster that the aircraft had been orbiting the area as part of a search for a vehicle that had failed to stop for police.

A spokesman for NPAS, which provides support to police forces across 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.”

The RAF denied similar accusations in 2021 when two of its pilots’ flight paths also created a shape resembling a penis.

Plane spotters had seen the image on flight tracking website FlightRadar24 and shared screenshots on social media.

In April, Finnish air force cadet pilots were reprimanded after also drawing phallic outlines in the sky during a training mission.

The air force confirmed that the cadets would be subject to “disciplinary” consequences, with a spokesperson saying at the time: “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.”