Air Force denies pilots intentionally drew male genitalia in the sky

The Air Force denied a group of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters intentionally created contrails in the shape of a penis in the sky on Tuesday, according to Military.com.

Rather, officials said the shape was created accidentally by fighter jets simulating a dogfight as part of a training exercise.

“The 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,” spokeswoman Maj. Rebecca Heyse told the news outlet in an email. “There was no nefarious or inappropriate behavior during the training flight. The flight audio was reviewed by senior leadership, and it confirmed the statements by the pilots explaining what happened.”

{mosads}During an exercise, the four-ship “red air” aggressor team engaged in a mock dogfight with the two-ship blue team, during which the red air team pulled back and the blue team circled around before re-engaging.

“The contrails were made by the 2-ship as they were beginning the fight with the 4-ship and then told to hold off, causing them to hook to reposition before then beginning the fight again, causing them to hook once more,” creating the phallic pattern in the contrails, Heyse said. She noted that there was a third vertical contrail that has not appeared on the social media images circulating of the contrails, according to Military.com.

The report comes weeks after the Navy Times reported that an investigation into a similar incident involving Navy lieutenants was coordinated by two junior officers, with one suggesting “Draw a giant penis, that would be awesome” before the 2017 incident took place.