Canadian air force investigating 'inappropriate and unapproved' call sign broadcast on U.K. flight
The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) is investigating an ‘inappropriate and unapproved’ call sign that was transmitted electronically from one of its aircraft on Monday.
RCAF identifiers, otherwise known as call signs, contain four letters and two numbers. They are assigned to pilots and usually remain unchanged, but on Monday it appeared one was tweaked when a CF-18 Hornet on a flight in the United Kingdom was broadcast globally as ‘D*CK69.’
- Download our app to get local alerts on your device
- Get the latest local updates right to your inbox
In a statement issued Monday a spokesperson for RCAF told CTV News Toronto they were “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 circumstances behind the change remain unclear. The RCAF said it could not provide further details as the incident remains under investigation.
A CF-18 Hornet flight in the United Kingdom broadcast the call sign 'D*CK69' on Monday in an incident under investigation by the Royal Canadian Air Force (Adsbexchange flight tracker)
The blunder drew attention online later Monday morning after being shared to X, formerly Twitter. The post garnered more than 10,000 views in about six hours.
“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 seems to have set the plane's Mode-S transponder to broadcast a callsign of #DICK69, rather than their assigned callsign of BLDE11,” user Steffan Watkins wrote in the tweet.
Within its statement, the force said it expects all its members to display the “highest standard of integrity and professionalism, and to exercise good judgment at all times.”
As of 4 p.m. Monday, the identifier was still displaying on at least two flight tracking websites.
In 2022, two senior RCAF officers were handed reprimands and minor suspensions after an offensive call sign was assigned to another pilot.
With files from The Canadian Press.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Large numbers of New York City police officers begin entering Columbia University campus
Large numbers of New York City police officers began entering the Columbia University late Tuesday as dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters remained on the campus.
Poilievre kicked out of Commons after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko'
Testy exchanges between the prime minister and his chief opponent ended with the Opposition leader and one of his MPs being ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday -- and the rest of Conservative caucus walking out of the chamber in protest.
Baby, grandparents among 4 people killed in wrong-way police chase on Ontario's Hwy. 401
A police chase which started with a liquor store robbery in Bowmanville Monday night ended in tragedy some 20 minutes later when a suspect fleeing police entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction and caused a pileup which killed an infant and the child's grandparents, as well as the suspect, investigators say.
Freeland leaves capital gains tax change out of coming budget implementation bill, here's why
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
Sword-wielding man attacks passersby in London, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring 4 others
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a northeast London suburb Tuesday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, British authorities said.
Man dies after suffering cardiac arrest while waiting in ER, widow wants investigation
When an ambulance took David Lippert to the hospital in March of 2023, the 68-year-old Kitchener, Ont., executive was hoping to find out why he was feeling weak and unable to walk. Some 24 hours later, he was found unresponsive in the ER.
CSE says it shared information on Chinese hacking of parliamentarians in 2022
While several MPs and senators say they were only recently made aware of China-backed hackers targeting them, the Communications Security Establishment, one of Canada's intelligence agencies, says it shared information about the incident with parliamentary officials in June of 2022.
WATCH Arnold Schwarzenegger spotted filming in Elora, Ont.
The name of the project has not been officially released although it’s widely believed to be the Netflix series FUBAR.
Eviction for landlord's use was legitimate, despite owners' partial move, B.C. court rules
A B.C. judge has upheld the eviction of a family from their North Vancouver townhouse, finding that the landlords did not take an unreasonable amount of time to move into the home after the tenants vacated it.