Flight radars picked up an unexpected outline in the sky above Bullsbrook, situated roughly 25 miles north of Perth this afternoon. The culprit was a Pilatus PC-21 training aircraft that embarked on a journey resembling a penis and testicles.
Warning: this is one of my more puerile articles, so if you’re here for serious analysis, please come back later.
The aircraft, with the registration number 9107, took off from RAAF Base Pearce at 12:24 PM and touched down by 1:25 PM. Built in 2000, this particular PC-21 is based in Western Australia, though it belongs to Singapore.
I didn’t actually know this, but apparently, the RAAF Base Pearce is not just home to Australian squadrons but also houses Singaporean squadrons. This collaboration stems from a 1993 Memorandum of Understanding signed between Singapore and Australia which permits Singapore to operate its RSAF pilot training school program on Australian soil. Given that there’s limited airspace available in above Singapore, the agreement has presumably been important in training Singapore’s air force.
The reason behind the unusual flight path isn’t clear. Hilariously, the always-classy Daily Mail has reached out to both Australian and Singaporean authorities for official comments though, unsurprisingly, neither have responded.
I suppose it’s possible this was an entirely inadvertent result of training exercises; after all, with so many thousands of flights every year, there’s bound to be at least one or two phallic flight paths, right?
