A pilot has traced a virtual Christmas tree complete with baubles over Germany on a test flight with an Airbus A380.

Spokesman Heiko Stolzke said that the five-hour flight the previous day was "a standard internal Airbus test flight before the delivery of a new aircraft".

He said the idea for the Christmas tree pattern of the flight, which took off from and landed at the company's plant in Hamburg, came from the pilot and engineers and it was carried out in cooperation with air traffic control.

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