The sky doodle first appeared on Flight Aware, a website that tracks the journey of almost every plane. This flight map was also shared on Reddit in a post titled "Looks like a Survey Pilot's last day today". 

Since being shared, netizens have been marvelling at the pilot's craftsmanship and level of detail.

On Reddit, one user wrote, "As a former survey pilot, this is definitely something that would happen at the end of a contract." Another said, "That's a fantastic tactical manoeuvre." 

A third added, "Looks like he was coming in to land and got delayed by air traffic control so he drew them a middle finger. If you look he was originally headed to land when he then circled back," while a fourth commented, "A legend in the aviation field."

According to Newsweek, the plane took off from Bellingham International Airport in Washington State, US. In under seven hours, the pilot did a number of tight zig-zags back and forth across northern Whatcom County and British Columbia airspace, before returning and touching down in Bellingham. 

The pilot's identity was not revealed, however, the plane's tail number - N59906 - showed that it was a Piper Navajo twin-piston (PA31) that was registered to Marc. in Mississippi, which is North America's largest provider of contract aircraft and flight crews for airborne Geographic Information System (GIS), survey and surveillance projects.