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Pilot writes message for world in the sky: 'Stay home'

The pilot's flight tracker left the message as the world grapples with the coronavirus' spread.

Sean Szymkowski
It all started with Gran Turismo. From those early PlayStation days, Sean was drawn to anything with four wheels. Prior to joining the Roadshow team, he was a freelance contributor for Motor Authority, The Car Connection and Green Car Reports. As for what's in the garage, Sean owns a 2016 Chevrolet SS, and yes, it has Holden badges.
Sean Szymkowski
Flight tracker message

The message speaks for itself.

Flight Radar 24

Early Monday morning, as most residing on the US' east coast just started to wake, a small plane took off from an Austrian airport. While in the air for nearly 30 minutes, the pilot spent their time crossing back and forth and creating a pattern in the sky. Once on the ground, it became clear it wasn't a practice run or anything like. Instead, it was a message.

It says "Stay home," in an effort to help fight the coronavirus, the flight tracker pattern reveals. Zipping above the ground, the pilot entered to begin spelling the message as best they could before maneuvering outside the words to create an underline on the message. The plane then landed at the same airport it took off from. All the while, the digital flight pattern tracing spans Austria and begins to cross over Hungary and Slovakia.

It's easy to read the stunt in a few different lights. Foremost, it is indeed good advice to stay home and help halt the spread of COVID-19, the disease this coronavirus causes. Social distancing has quickly entered nearly everyone's daily vocabulary as we seek out further ways to slow the spread of the virus.

In a separate, more lighthearted take, it's entertaining to see a pilot go through this much trouble. If anything, it's a testament to the pilot's skills, and maybe it's just the reminder we need that everyone's in this together.

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