German pilot makes point with syringe in the sky

[December 31, 2020]    FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German pilot Samy Kramer has traced a giant syringe in the sky, flying 200 kilometers to remind people about the start of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Europe.

A flightradar24.com handout photo received on December 27, 2020 shows the flight track for a D-ENIG plane that traced a syringe on the maps in Germany to celebrate the arrival of a COVID-19 vaccine. The flight between Friedrichshafen and Ulm took place on December 23, 2020. Mandatory credit FLIGHTRADAR24.COM/via REUTERS

The 20-year-old pilot mapped out the route he would need to take on a GPS device before taking to the skies near Lake Constance in southern Germany. The syringe-shaped route showed up on internet site flightradar24.

"There are still relatively many people opposing the vaccination and my action may be a reminder for them to think about the topic, to get things moving", Kramer told Reuters TV on Sunday, adding that his flight should not be understood as a direct call to be inoculated.

"Perhaps it was also a bit of a sign of joy, because the aviation industry has been hit pretty hard by the pandemic", Kramer said.

Germany officially kicked off its COVID-19 vaccination campaign on Sunday. The federal government is planning to distribute more than 1.3 million vaccine doses to local health authorities by the end of this year and about 700,000 per week from January.

(Reporting by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

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