Pilot's viral sky message leaves people stunned after unexpected flight path

A pilot has gone viral after leaving an unexpected message in the sky during a routine flight.

The pilot of the two-hour maintenance test flight over Northwest England traced the words "I'm bored" across the sky, with the unusual message and route appearing on the flight-tracking website Flightradar24.

The Ravenair-operated Piper Tomahawk aircraft departed from Liverpool around 11:30 a.m. Saturday. It spent about two hours flying over the Wirral peninsula, Cheshire and North Wales before safely returning, according to Flightradar24.

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Screenshots of the odd flight path quickly spread across social media.

Gary Leff, a Texas-based travel industry expert and author of the blog "View From the Wing," told Fox News Digital there is little cause for concern, from his point of view, as the flight was conducted to test the aircraft rather than transport passengers.

A pilot has gone viral after using a routine test flight to trace an unexpected message, as shown above, visible on flight-tracking data. (Courtesy FlightRadar24.com)

"This was a test flight, not a passenger flight," Leff said. "Writing 'I'm bored' takes a certain amount of skill — and suggests the pilot was anything but distracted."

Leff noted that the most demanding work for pilots typically happens before takeoff, during takeoff and landing.

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"Only a small percentage of flying on more modern aircraft is done manually at cruise," he said. "The workload above 10,000 feet is far less than during the takeoff and landing phases."

Leff added, "'I'm bored' is an amusing way to express this."

The plane (not shown) departed Liverpool around 11:30 a.m. Saturday and spent about two hours flying over Northwest England before safely returning. (iStock)

The aviation company, Ravenair, told the BBC that a flying instructor in his 20s was conducting a routine test flight after a replacement part had been installed on the aircraft.

"I think the pilot was literally a bit bored as it was just a test flight. Mind you, it was pretty skillful flying," Wes Barrett, operation manager, told the news outlet.

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"He was a bit bored, but he probably had to concentrate a lot in the end to spell out the words," he added.

The flight path quickly went viral, prompting discussion across social media.

Experts say spelling out a message such as the one by the pilot requires precision and indicates the pilot remained focused throughout the flight. (Dushlik/iStock)

"This should be unremarkable ... but it's nice to see the pilot didn't face any issues because of this," one Reddit user wrote.

Others praised the precision required to pull off the message. 

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"Guys, [I] think he might have been a little bit bored," another commenter joked. "Credit for the amount of concentration and thinking required for this, though."

Another person wrote on Facebook, "Adult version of Etch-a-Sketch."

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Fox News Digital reached out to Ravenair, based in Liverpool in the U.K., for comment.