The plane, operated by Blackpool-based air-ads.com, towed a banner over St James’s Park on Sunday, bearing the message ‘5 in a row 5underland’ to mark the Black Cats’ recent record in derby wins over the Magpies.
But the fly-past took place 17 minutes into the game, as Newcastle supporters were paying tribute to Liam and John, who died in the MH17 air disaster while on their way to watch the team’s pre-season tour.
Air-ads boss Alan Elliott said the firm has been bombarded with abuse on-line from angry fans – but denied there had been any intention to offend.
The plan had originally been to fly over the stadium almost quarter of a hour later.
“The timing was unfortunate, but it was certainly not intentional,” he said.
“Originally, we had planned to route through Sunderland before we arrived at St James’s Park, but there was some low cloud in the area, so the pilot decided to go straight to St James’s and then head back over Sunderland.
“The original idea was to fly from Peterlee to the coast, go up the coast, do two or three circles of Sunderland and then on to St James’s Park, but because of the weather on the day, we had to reverse that.
“We were intending to get there about 4.30pm, which would have been well after the tribute.”