Royal Canadian Air Force pilot causes rise over "inappropriate" call sign
A Royal Canadian Air Force pilot has caused a rise over their decision to allegedly set the aircraft’s transporter broadcast call sign to “#D*CK69.”
In a statement to Daily Hive, the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) said it is now investigating the “inappropriate” incident.
The call sign gained attention on X after a post from Steffan Watkins, a Canadian research consultant.
🇨🇦 In a globally publicly viewable demonstration of poor judgement and lack of situational awareness, a Royal Canadian Air Force pilot of a CF-188 Hornet (believed to be 188735|#C2BEDB) seems to have set the plane's Mode-S transponder to broadcast a callsign of #DICK69, rather… pic.twitter.com/lZVH0QbBiz
— Steffan Watkins  (@steffanwatkins) September 25, 2023
“In a globally publicly viewable demonstration of poor judgment and lack of situational awareness, a Royal Canadian Air Force pilot of a CF-188 Hornet (believed to be 188735|#C2BEDB) seems to have set the plane’s Mode-S transponder to broadcast a callsign of #DICK69, rather than their assigned callsign of #BLDE11, for the lulz,” he wrote on X.
“I’m so glad misogyny has been taken care of in the Canadian Armed Forces, I was wondering if we’d ever get rid of it.”
The inappropriate callsign was shown on ADS-B Exchange, an unfiltered flight data website.
ADS-B Exchange/Screenshot
In a statement to Daily Hive, the Royal Canadian Air Force said it was “aware of an inappropriate and unapproved aircraft identifier that was transmitted electronically by one of our CF-18 Hornets currently deployed to the United Kingdom.”
“The incident is under investigation so additional details about what transpired cannot be provided at this time.”
It added that it expects all of its members to display the highest standards of integrity and professionalism and to exercise good judgment at all times.”
The RCAF noted that it could not confirm which particular pilot was involved in the incident.