The pilot said it took him two hours and 25 minutes to complete the flight.
A Canadian pilot showed his solidarity with the Black Lives Matters movement and honored George Floyd by flying his plane in the shape of a fist. Dimitri Neonakis designed and flew the flight path, which he said was 330 miles, on Thursday.
Neonakis said he flew the path to support the protests in response to the death of 46-year-old George Floyd, who died after a Minnesota police officer held his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest.
Neonakis’ flight was tracked but a company called “FlightAware.” It took about two hours and 25 minutes. The pilot added that the design of the fist took about four hours to draw and map out before the flight.
On Facebook, Neonakis said the fist was “for George.”
“Today I flew this 330 nautical mile flight pattern which took the shape of a movement symbol which I respect and support,” he wrote. “While I was up there moving around free, the words of George Floyd. ‘I can’t Breathe,’ came to mind a few times, a stark contrast.”
Neonakis also called for an end to racism in his post.
The black power fist originated as a symbol during the black power movement of the 1960s. It’s also famously recognized from a photo taken during during the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, when two African-American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, raised a fist during the national anthem to protest racism and injustice.
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