‘Sky Penis’ Accidentally Created By Air Force F-35s, Controversial Photo Goes Viral

The 56th Fighter Wing pilots of Luke Air Force Base in Arizona were flying F-35 Joint Strike Fighters during a training exercise Tuesday when they accidentally created a pattern in the sky that resembled a penis.

After photos of the obscene design began circulating online and among the Air Force pilot community, a Luke spokeswoman clarified, in a statement to Air Force Times, that officials looked into the matter and drawing a phallic symbol wasn’t the intention of the pilots who participated in the training session.

“We’ve seen the photos that have been circulating online from Tuesday afternoon. 56th Fighter Wing senior leadership reviewed the training tapes from the flight and confirmed that F-35s conducting standard fighter training maneuvers Tuesday afternoon in the Gladden and Bagdad military operating airspace resulted in the creation of the contrails. There was no nefarious or inappropriate behavior during the training flight,” Rebecca Heyse, chief of public affairs for the 56th Fighter Wing at Luke, said in a statement.

So how did the fighter jets end up creating a “sky penis”? Heyse explained that a total of six F-35s took part in the dogfighting drill, in which a four-ship “red air” aggressor team was pitted against a two-ship "blue" team. After making the contrails in an attempt to fight the four-ship, the blue team was told to hold off, which caused them to hook as they sought to reposition themselves.

After the mock fighting resumed, the two-ship again hooked themselves. “What is not seen in the photos is a third vertical contrail parallel to the two in the photo,” Heyse added.

All the pilots who participated in the training provided statements regarding the maneuvers used by them during the session and they were corroborated against audio recordings obtained from their flights.

In recent years, there have been a series of incidents where Air Force pilots have been accused of drawing patterns resembling the male genitalia in the sky, intentionally or otherwise. In 2017, a Navy crew was punished for drawing an "obscene image" in the sky over Okanogan County, Washington.

"US Navy air crew, flying an F/A-18 Growler [Electronic Attack Aircraft] assigned to Electronic Attack Squadron 130 based at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington, flew an air pattern... that left a condensed air trail resembling an obscene image to observers on the ground," Navy spokesperson Lt. Cmdr. Leslie Hubbell said at the time, CNN reported.