Russia’s Pobeda low-cost airline was behind a phallic flight path made in support of the national football team captain after he was embroiled in a sex video scandal, the RBC news website reported Thursday, citing a federal aviation report.
Russia’s Federal Air Transportation Agency (Rosaviatsia) said the Nov. 11 Moscow-Yekaterinburg flight with 102 passengers onboard could have posed a safety hazard. Pobeda said at the time that the pilots likely performed the maneuver to show their support for national team captain Artyom Dzyuba, whose selfie masturbation video had leaked days earlier.
A Rosaviatsia commission blamed Pobeda’s management for the incident, saying the penis-shaped flight path violated safety rules, according to RBC. Pobeda is a subsidiary of Russia’s flagship carrier Aeroflot.
Rosaviatsia’s commission uncovered that Pobeda failed to get a similar path approved for a Moscow-St. Petersburg flight on Nov. 10, RBC reported. The airline allegedly told police afterwards that the Boeing 737-800, which reportedly has no fuel drainage system, needed to take that flight path to drain fuel.
The Rosaviatsia commission reportedly said the two incidents pointed to “deliberate actions” by Pobeda’s management.
According to the Baza Telegram channel, which also cited the Rosaviatsia report, Nov. 10 transcripts allegedly showed pilots thanking flight control for blocking the phallic-shaped pattern they had sought to perform “against their will.”
Rosaviatsia urged Aeroflot to examine the Pobeda airline management’s “suitability for the job,” according to the reports.