Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Passenger plane draws ‘relax’ with flight path near Ukrainian border

The Air Moldova Airbus A321 drew an 80-mile wide ‘relax’, watched by over 30,000 people on the tracking site Flightradar24.com.

Henry Jones
Thursday 17 February 2022 11:45 EST
The aircraft’s flight path drew the word ‘relax’ (Flightradar24.com/PA)
The aircraft’s flight path drew the word ‘relax’ (Flightradar24.com/PA)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

A passenger plane has written “relax” with its flight path near Ukraine’s border.

Amid heightened tensions with Russia, an Air Moldova plane drew an 80-mile wide version of the word using its flight path on Thursday afternoon, data courtesy of Flightradar24.com showed.

The plane, a 23-year-old Airbus A321 using “Relax” as its call sign, departed from Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, for a one-hour 40-minute flight before landing back at the same airport.

It flew at an altitude of 10,000 feet, at times just 25 miles from the country’s border with Ukraine.

Over 30,000 users were tracking the flight at one point, according to Flightradar24.com.

The PA news agency has contacted Air Moldova for comment but it had not responded at the time of publication.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in