The U.S. Marine Corps has launched an investigation after social media users noted Tuesday that a California-based Marine flight had appeared to trace out a phallic shape in the sky.

Aircraft Spots, a Twitter account that documents military flights noted the airplane's unusual path over California's Salton Sea, an isolated location southeast of Palm Springs. The account tweeted photos appearing to show a flight path that deviated from a straight line into an intricate, obscene shape.

"Somebody needs to have a word" with the pilot, the account joked.

Initially identified as a Navy flight, the account later corrected the record to say the airplane belonged to the Marine Corps.

Maj. Josef Patterson, spokesman for 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, told the Marine Corps Times that the aircraft in question belongs to Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 101. Patterson could not say whether the pilot was an instructor or in training.

"Obscene or inappropriate actions, flight or not, do not reflect the core values we hold as Marines," Patterson told NBC 7 San Diego. He told the station that the incident was being investigated and that the Marine Corps would determine possible disciplinary action after the investigation was completed.

Some see multiple offending shapes in the flight path, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The paper also notes that the shapes would not have been visible to those on the ground and could likely only have been revealed by flight-tracking programs.

A similar incident last year in Washington state gained national attention when U.S. Navy officials confirmed one of its aircraft was involved in skywriting a figure of a penis. In that case, the offending shape was visible with the naked eye.