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Russia's top budget airline sacks executive over phallic flight stunt - source

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Reuters

<p>MOSCOW - Russia&#x27;s top budget airline has sacked one of its deputy heads and formally reprimanded its director after one of its passenger planes traced a phallic-like route in the sky during a commercial flight, an industry source told Reuters on Tuesday.</p><p>Aeroflot&#x27;s low-cost airline Pobeda came under scrutiny when one of its Moscow-Yekaterinburg flights veered from its path on Nov. 11 for what an official report said were irregular manoeuvres with 102 passengers on board.</p><p>Russian media cast the phallic-like route as a show of public support for soccer star Artyom Dzyuba who had been dropped from the Russian national team after the leak of a private, intimate video featuring a man similar to him.</p><p>Pobeda&#x27;s board reprimanded General Director Andrey Kalmykov and sacked one of his deputies at a meeting on Tuesday over the incident, a source told Reuters. The RBC media outlet, citing its own source, reported the same details.</p><p>Aeroflot confirmed Pobeda had held a board meeting, but declined to comment further. Both Pobeda and the national Rosaviatsia authority declined to comment.</p><p>The aviation authority last month recommended Kalmykov be sacked over the incident in an internal report that was leaked on social media and confirmed to Reuters by a source. <strong>(Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by William Maclean)</strong></p><div><strong>FROM THE ARCHIVES</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/V1CdgnFBCqM?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

<p>MOSCOW - Russia's top budget airline has sacked one of its deputy heads and formally reprimanded its director after one of its passenger planes traced a phallic-like route in the sky during a commercial flight, an industry source told Reuters on Tuesday.</p>

MOSCOW - Russia's top budget airline has sacked one of its deputy heads and formally reprimanded its director after one of its passenger planes traced a phallic-like route in the sky during a commercial flight, an industry source told Reuters on Tuesday.