A commercial airline pilot who was instructed to divert his aircraft from Catania to Malta appeared unhappy with the decision and flew the plane in a penis-shaped flight pattern, much to the amusement of plane watchers.

The Lufthansa flight left Frankfurt on Friday afternoon and was bound to land in Catania around two hours later. But mid-flight, the aircraft was asked to divert to Malta, according to air traffic website Flight Radar.

It was Italian news website La Repubblica that flagged the maneuvre, saying it was one of several flights impacted by the reduced operations at Catania's Fontanarossa airport after a fire devastated one of its terminals on July 16.

But the Lufthansa pilot seemed less than happy with the change of plans and decided to take the diversion a step further before making their way to Malta.

On the flight tracking website, the aircraft was recorded flying over and past Catania and maneuvered a flight path in the shape of a male genital organ on the sea off the Sicilian east coast.

The massive phallic shape was more than 24 kilometres long - as long as the distance of the entire island of Malta from Ċirkewwa to Marsaxlokk and virtually just as wide - and took the pilot more than 16 minutes to complete.

When he was done, the pilot turned back to the original flight path and the aircraft made its way to Malta, landing around half an hour later.

The shape of the phallus was as long as the distance of the entire island of Malta from Ċirkewwa to Marsaxlokk and virtually just as wide. Photo: Flight Radar

The Lufthansa pilot was not the first to draw phallic shapes in the sky.

All sorts of planes - from commercial to military aircraft - have been recorded flying in phallic shapes worldwide.

And the Maltese archipelago experienced its own lewd shapes hanging over the islands last January, when an Armed Forces of Malta's helicopter flight pattern appeared to create a phallic drawing in the skies above Comino.

The pattern included a series of elaborate loops that, when viewed on a map, appear to show the outline of a penis. 

In reaction, the AFM had said the image was printed out of context because it did not show the completed flight path.