Halloween Fail: Israeli Air Force Pumpkin Features Image of Russian Jet

The only problem, as pointed out by one of the first users to respond to the post, is that the plane silhouette on the pumpkin is actually clearly a Russian-made Su-27 multirole fighter. A user named Nick noted that “the only question I have about this pumpkin is why it is a Sukhoi Su-27 when the Israeli Air Force doesn’t operate them?”

Although others began defending the pumpkin carving, suggesting instead that it might have been an F-16 Fighting Falcon, it’s obvious that they were just trying to save face. See for yourself:

An F-16 Fighting Falcon:

A Sukhoi Su-27, NATO reporting name Flanker:

Note the distinctive ‘tunnel’ wing between the two engines on the rear end of the Sukhoi. This design element has a double role, acting as an additional lifting surface, and to hide the plane’s armaments from radar detection.

The only American aircraft with this design feature is the F-14 Tomcat, which has a much shorter ‘wing’ of its own between its twin engines, and, moreover, this is not an aircraft used by the Israeli Air Force. None of the fighter planes operated by the IAF (the F-15 Eagle, the F-15E Strike Eagle or the F-16 Fighting Falcon) have anything close to the Su-27’s ‘tunnel’ wing design.

So what does it all mean? Maybe it’s a secret code for the Russian aircraft manufacturer on the kinds of planes Israel may be looking at buying from them in the future. Or maybe it’s all just a massive FAIL.