A National Police Air Service helicopter's night patrol over Hampshire, England, left behind an unmistakable shape in its flight-tracking data this week — and police say it was entirely unintentional.
Gordon Bird, 53, a resident of Fleet, Hampshire, said the helicopter woke his 2-year-old daughter around 11 p.m. Monday, circling overhead for 15 to 20 minutes. Curious about the noise, he pulled up the aircraft's public flight-tracking data afterward and found its path had traced a crude, unmistakably anatomical shape across the sky, which he shared online.
A search, not a stunt
NPAS, which operates helicopters on behalf of England's police forces, told the BBC the shape was accidental, according to UPI. "The flight was conducted for a legitimate policing purpose, in support of Thames Valley Police," the service said, adding that the crew was "orbiting the locations they were directed to" while helping search for a vehicle that had failed to stop for officers. NPAS helicopters, the statement noted, "do not follow defined or predetermined flight plans" — their paths shift in real time with the search on the ground, rather than being set in advance.
It is not the first time a police or military flight path has produced an unplanned shape visible on tracking sites. In April, the Finnish Air Force disciplined cadets after a training flight traced a similar pattern, an incident that drew international attention.
For NPAS, the Hampshire flight ends as a minor embarrassment rather than a disciplinary matter: officials say the underlying search was genuine police work, and the shape was simply a byproduct of a helicopter responding, turn by turn, to information from the ground — a reminder that flight-tracking apps now give the public an unusually detailed window into otherwise routine police operations.