Flightradar

[KentPhilip]

I get "site not found"

All the planes must have crashed.

[TimberWolf]

I've seen a cracking App for the iPhone which allows you to point up at the sky and through the viewfinder will show you the normal view with the name/direction of the plane(s). Really cool.

The app version of Flightradar24 appears to do that too:

[OwlHoot]

I get "site not found"

Oh it's back now.

Hovering over one plane north of Ireland heading west, pops up "No callsign". What does that mean?

[MarillionFan]

Oh it's back now.

Hovering over one plane north of Ireland heading west, pops up "No callsign". What does that mean?

Zeity on his way home for the weekend?

[Spacecadet]

Is this real? Not nearly enough planes over the states as compared with Europe for my liking.

This will show how the flights around the world change as the day progresses:

[AtW]

It's safe to say that Air Force One won't be on that site.

HTH

[Paddy]

It's safe to say that Air Force One won't be on that site.

HTH

The site relies on amateurs using transponder receivers. The coverage is a bit patchy outside the US and Europe but if AF1 is using a civilian transponder; it will be picked up.

[Scrag Meister]

Someone already posted this?

Agreed, that is cool.

Why so few over US? Europe is one big carpet of yellow planes.

Edit : Prob cos is voluntary data contribution.

[Bacchus]

very good site (although a bit of a pain on poor bandwidth at clientco)

Dumped GF Bacchus at the airport this morning and then followed her flight whilst it safely traversed Europe - don't know what I would have thought if it had winked out of existence though

[Lockhouse]

My son is an air traffic controller, I showed him the site and he said;

"Any aircraft capable of flying across the ocean has to carry special equipment called ADS (automatic dependant surveillance). It transmits various bits of info about the flight including callsign, position, height, destination etc to satellites. It's easily interrogated by spotters on the ground who send it to the Internet. Some planes only send the info every 10 mins but most send it every few seconds. But on flightradar24 you would only see those transmitting which is only about half of what's up there. You wouldn't see little regional jets or private stuff. And no military planes!"