An Air India Flight Map Shows A Plane Flying Over Ukraine Despite Every Other Commercial Pilot Avoiding The Airspace

Since the Russia-Ukraine conflict has escalated significantly this week, air traffic control of major airlines has limited flying over the militarized region due to the tragedy of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 that was shot down by Russian separatists in a similar conflict back in 2014. However, a screenshot of a flight map was posted to Twitter yesterday showing a lone plane from Air India flying over Ukraine, provoking meme creators to imagine what was going on in the pilot's head.

By imagining the inner mechanisms of the Air India pilot's mind, Twitter users such as @sc23cc likened them to the infamous Leeroy Jenkins meme, when a World of Warcraft player mindlessly charged into a battle, inspiring a legendary meme in 2005.

Although it's unknown if the Twitter user shown above was the first one who took the screenshot, they undoubtedly kicked off the tweetstorm that ensued. En masse, users on the platform started recaptioning and reacting to the optically humorous flight map in their own tweets. The air traffic "black hole" that the Ukrainian conflict had created captured both the absurdity and the global nature of the ongoing crisis — two factors that made it easy for meme creators to exploit.

Others were inspired to check the flight maps on their own, finding other planes that were also flying over the warzone and further spreading the meme trend on the platform throughout the day.

Later on in the topic's virality, one Twitter user, @uyjerimiah, pointed out the genuine flight path of the original Air India plane, showing that it was actually on its way to Germany. Other Twitter users tried to quell the worries of meme creators by posting news updates regarding Air India flights helping to evacuate Indian citizens within Romania and Ukraine, relating the rogue flight to this cause. In turn, the goofs and gaffs petered out as more people realized it was likely nothing to worry about.

#BREAKING: Air India to send two special evacuation flights shortly to Romania to evacuate stranded Indian Nationals and students who were in Ukraine. Full fledged evacuation by Government of India begins.

— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) February 25, 2022

Air India flight carrying 242 passengers from Ukraine reaches Delhi. Thanks narendramodi</a> ji &amp; <a href="https://twitter.com/DrSJaishankar?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">DrSJaishankar ji. pic.twitter.com/gOpVv5VR39

— Ajay Sehrawat (@IamAjaySehrawat) February 24, 2022