Last night at 9:00 p.m. CEST a U.S.Navy Boeing P-8A “Poseidon” left NAS Sigonella to perform a new surveillance mission in the Black Sea theater.
It is unusual for a mission to be operated during night hours but it has happened before.
Shortly after takeoff, however, when the aircraft was flying south of the island of Corfu, the P-8A reversed course and returned to Sigonella.
Before it could land, it made several orbits off eastern Sicily (probably to consume fuel and thus reach the maximum allowed landing weight), and at about 10:45 p.m. the aircraft landed.