Frequently asked questions

Aircraft broadcast their own position, altitude, speed and identity over ADS-B. Volunteer receivers pick up those signals and share them with airplanes.live, a community tracking network. When you open the live sky tool, it uses your location to fetch the aircraft near you, then calculates each one's compass direction, distance and angle above the horizon, so it can tell you something like "look NE, 35° up". Read more in how ADS-B works.

For the "where to look" directions, yes. Your browser asks for permission, and your location is used in the browser and sent only as coordinates to our API to fetch nearby aircraft. We do not store it. Your last location is saved locally in your own browser so the tool can start faster next time; clearing your site data removes it. You can still browse the map without sharing your location, but bearings and elevation angles need to know where you are.

Note roughly which direction the plane is in and how high it looks (a fist at arm's length is about 10°). Open the live sky tool, then find the aircraft whose direction and angle match. Check that its direction of travel matches too. Our step-by-step guide, how to identify a plane overhead, walks through it with an example.

The tool refreshes about every 10 seconds. Aircraft send position messages about twice per second, and the network typically has a position within a few seconds of the broadcast, so what you see is close to live. A fast jet can still move a mile or more between refreshes, so it may be slightly ahead of where the tool shows it.

ADS-B positions come from the aircraft's own GPS and are usually accurate to within tens of metres. The main sources of error are timing (the plane keeps moving between refreshes) and your own phone's location accuracy. Positions calculated by MLAT, for aircraft without ADS-B, are less precise and can lag or jump. For finding a plane in the sky, the direction and angle are almost always close enough.

The elevation angle is how high the plane appears above the horizon: 0° is on the horizon and 90° is straight overhead. At arm's length a closed fist covers about 10° and a spread hand about 20°. Low angles mean distant planes: a jet at cruise 10° above the horizon is more than 30 nautical miles away. See how far away is that plane?

That is the bearing, the compass direction from you to the plane. 0° is north, 90° east, 180° south and 270° west, and the tool also rounds it to a compass point like NE. If you are not sure which way north is, most phone compass apps will tell you, or use the direction of the sunset (roughly west) as a guide.

The most common reasons are that the plane is low and no receiver near you can hear it, that it does not broadcast ADS-B (many gliders, vintage aircraft and some military aircraft do not), or that the data has not refreshed yet. It may also be farther away than it looks. Wait a refresh or two, then see why some planes don't show up for the full list.

The aircraft is reporting that it is on the surface: taxiing, parked with its transponder on, or in the first or last seconds of a takeoff or landing. Helicopters on helipads also show "ground". Occasionally an aircraft that has just lifted off shows ground for a moment. More in what altitude numbers mean.

Above sea level. The altitude shown is barometric pressure altitude, which approximates height above mean sea level. To estimate height above you, subtract your own elevation. In a high city like Denver, that difference is more than 5,000 ft.

Sound travels at roughly 1,100 ft per second near the ground, slower in the cold air higher up. From a jet at 35,000 ft, it takes around 30 seconds to reach you, and in that time the plane moves about 4 nautical miles. Look ahead of where the sound seems to come from, in the direction the plane is travelling.

Look for word callsigns such as REACH (Air Mobility Command transports), types like the C-17, C-130, KC-135 or UH-60, and US military ICAO addresses, which often begin with AE. Many military flights switch ADS-B off, which is allowed, so not all of them appear. See airliner, bizjet, helicopter or military?

You are probably under an arrival or departure path. Airliners on a standard 3° approach are about 3,000 ft above the runway 10 nautical miles out and 1,500 ft at 5 nm. Because aircraft take off and land into the wind, the runway in use, and so the neighbourhoods under the paths, change with the weather. See aircraft noise and flight paths, which also explains how to contact your airport's noise office.

A high airliner in a neat oval is usually in a holding pattern, waiting for weather or traffic at its destination. Small planes circle for flight training, photography, surveys, banner towing or skydiving. Helicopters circling one spot are often police, news or air ambulance. See why planes circle and why helicopters circle.

Those are contrails: ice-crystal clouds that form when hot, humid engine exhaust meets very cold air, usually around -40 °C and above roughly 26,000 ft. Whether they vanish quickly or linger for hours depends on the humidity at that altitude. A plane making one is almost certainly a jet at cruise. See contrails explained.

7700 is the general emergency code. It is often precautionary, for example for a medical problem on board or a technical warning, and most of these flights land normally. Air traffic control already knows and has arranged any help needed, so there is no need to call anyone. See squawk codes explained.

Airline callsigns use a three-letter ICAO airline code plus a flight number: SKW is SkyWest, which flies many United, Delta, American and Alaska regional flights. Callsigns starting with N followed by numbers and letters are US registrations, used mostly by private and business aircraft. See callsigns and flight numbers.

Planes have a flashing red beacon, white strobes and red and green wingtip lights. Satellites shine with a steady light, never blink, make no sound, and are mostly seen within a couple of hours of sunset or sunrise. A line of evenly spaced moving lights is usually a Starlink "train" a few days after launch. None of these appear on the aircraft list. See spotting planes at night.

Generally no. In the US, drones flown under the FAA's Part 107 rules are not allowed to transmit ADS-B Out. Instead they broadcast Remote ID over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, which ADS-B receivers do not pick up. A small light moving erratically or hovering a few hundred feet up, with no match in the list, may well be a drone.

Ground speed includes wind. Airliners cruise at about 450 to 500 knots through the air, and an eastbound flight riding a strong jet stream can gain 100 knots or more, especially in winter. Westbound flights into the same wind show much lower ground speeds.

FL350 is flight level 350: 35,000 ft of pressure altitude, measured with the standard altimeter setting of 29.92 inHg. In the US and Canada, flight levels are used at and above 18,000 ft. See what altitude numbers mean.

They are ICAO type designators, short codes for aircraft models. B738 is the Boeing 737-800, A20N the Airbus A320neo, E75L the Embraer E175 and C172 the Cessna 172. Browse our aircraft pages to see what each one looks like.

As a rule of thumb, a jet at 35,000 ft that looks 45° up is about 6 nautical miles away over the ground, at 30° about 10 nm, and at 10° more than 30 nm. Planes near the horizon are usually much farther away than they appear. Details in how far away is that plane?

Our aircraft data comes from airplanes.live, a community network of volunteer-run ADS-B receivers, called feeders. Each feeder picks up aircraft broadcasts within radio range and shares them with the network, which combines them into a live picture of the sky. Coverage is best where many feeders are active, and thinner in remote areas and close to the ground.

Receiving ADS-B is generally legal, including in the US. ADS-B is an unencrypted public broadcast designed to be received by air traffic control, other aircraft and anyone else listening, and hobbyists have been receiving it for many years. As with any data, how it is used still matters: use common sense and respect people's privacy.

A basic feeder is a small 1090 MHz antenna, an inexpensive USB software-defined radio and a single-board computer, ideally with the antenna placed high with a clear view of the sky. airplanes.live has information on how to set one up and connect it to the network. More feeders mean better coverage, especially of low aircraft and helicopters near you.

They are FAA privacy programs for US aircraft owners. LADD asks companies that receive FAA flight data to hide or limit an aircraft. PIA lets an aircraft broadcast a temporary address that is not linked to its registration in public records. Community networks built from their own receivers may still show LADD aircraft, while PIA aircraft often appear with unknown type or owner.

MLAT (multilateration) means the position was calculated rather than broadcast. The aircraft has a Mode S transponder but is not sending ADS-B position, so the network works out where it is from the tiny differences in when at least four receivers heard its signal. MLAT positions are less precise and update less often.

ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) is a system in which aircraft use GPS to determine their position and broadcast it, with altitude, speed and identity, about twice per second on 1090 MHz or, in the US below 18,000 ft, 978 MHz. In the US it has been required in busy and high airspace since January 1, 2020. See how ADS-B works.

Yes. The live sky tool, guides, aircraft pages and glossary are free to use.

We are planning optional Pro plans for people who use the site a lot. The idea is an ad-free experience plus extras, such as alerts, but details are not final yet. The core tool will stay free. Check the Pro page for the latest.

Yes. The tool runs in your mobile browser, with no app to install. Allow location access when asked so it can calculate where to look. If you previously denied location, you can re-enable it for this site in your browser's settings.

Yes. Our city pages describe common flight paths and what you are likely to see over major US metro areas, such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Browse them all on the city index.

Our glossary explains the terms you will see in the tool and in aviation news, from squawk to glideslope. For deeper explanations, see the guides.