Pilot celebrates his retiring Boeing by drawing a plane in the sky

A Boeing 747 pilot flew a route in the shape of a jumbo jet over the Mediterranean to mark the aircraft's final journey.

The pilot at the helm of a Boeing 747 aircraft of the state-owned Israeli airline El Al came up with a novel way to celebrate the grounding of the aircraft. As the Boeing 747 made its final journey across the Mediterranean - instead of just a sentimental message over the tannoy, or a hat-tip to the aircraft as he disembarked - the pilot took a zig-zag path to draw the outline of a jumbo jet in the sky, complete with wings, tail and all four engines.

The creative message over the south-west of Cyprus was tracked on the plane's GPS system. Fight tracker website Flightradar24 mapped the flight and captured the pilot's display after he descended to 10,000 feet (3000m) to create the artwork. Flight LY1747 began crafting the image two hours after take-off from Rome on Sunday as the flight made its way to Tel Aviv, its final destination. According to Flightradar24, the pilot announced his intention ahead of departure so that people could login to the website to see the incredibly neat drawing come to life in real time. 

The plane had been serving EI A1 for 48 years before taking its final flight. The Israeli airline is replacing the 747 with Boeing’s 787-9 Dreamliner, a more fuel-efficient model. This 747 captain isn't the only pilot who likes to create art at high-altitude. In 2017, a pilot traced the silhouette of a Christmas tree in the sky while doing a flight test of an Emirates Airbus A380 aircraft over Germany.