Flight Tracker

Current aircraft

Last seen {{ lastSeenLabel }}

{{ summarySpeed }} {{ summaryAltitude }} {{ summaryVertical }} {{ summaryHeading }} {{ originCountry }} On ground

Flight identifier:

Examples: DAL84, UAL100, or ICAO hex A123BC; blank returns the freshest flights in scope.

Search scope:

Use Region around a known area; use Global when the aircraft position is unknown.

Region preset:

Pick a starter region, then adjust coordinates or radius when the aircraft is elsewhere.

Center coordinates:

Enter decimal latitude and longitude; JFK example: 40.6413, -73.7781.

Lat Lon

Radius: {{ radiusLabel }}

Accepted range: 20-2000 km, in 10 km steps.

Auto-refresh:

Turn on only while watching a selected flight or active regional scan.

Refresh interval: {{ refreshIntervalLabel }}

Accepted range: 5-300 seconds; use slower polling for long sessions.

sec

Result cap: {{ matchLimitLabel }}

Accepted range: 1-200 flights kept after identifier and freshness sorting.

flights

Field	Value	Copy
{{ row.label }}	{{ row.value }}

Open OSM Open Google

#	Callsign	ICAO	Altitude (ft)	Speed (kts)	Range	Last contact	Focus	Copy
{{ row.rank }}	{{ row.callsign }}	{{ row.icao24 }}	{{ row.altitude }}	{{ row.speed }}	{{ row.distance }}	{{ row.lastSeen }}
No flights found for the current query.

Check	Status	Evidence	Action	Copy
{{ row.check }}	{{ row.status }}	{{ row.evidence }}	{{ row.action }}

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Aircraft tracking starts with a surveillance snapshot, not with the airline itinerary shown on a ticket. A public receiver network may hear a transponder message, combine it with recent position information, and expose a short state vector: identity clues, latitude and longitude, altitude, ground speed, vertical trend, heading, surface status, and contact time. A marker is useful only after the identity clue and the age of the contact are strong enough for the decision being made.

Several labels can point at the same aircraft from different angles. A passenger may know an airline flight number, an air traffic display may show an operating callsign, and a receiver feed may report a six-character ICAO hex address tied to the transponder. Those values often line up, but they are not guaranteed to. Callsigns can be missing, shortened, reused, or different from a booking-visible number, while a hex address is usually a cleaner aircraft identity clue when it is known.

Tracking is most useful when the question is concrete: confirming that a departure is airborne, checking whether an aircraft is still near an airport, comparing candidates with similar callsigns, or deciding whether a last-seen point is too old to share. It is weaker when the question belongs to the airline schedule, such as gate changes, arrival promises, passenger connections, or route intent. The public feed reports what was heard, not what the operator plans next.

State vector: A current aircraft snapshot with identity, position, motion, and time fields.
Last contact: The freshest contact time known for the reported state, which is the first check before trusting a position.
True track: The aircraft's reported movement direction in degrees clockwise from north.
Position source: The surveillance method behind the position, such as ADS-B, ASTERIX, MLAT, or FLARM.

Aircraft broadcast identity becomes a receiver snapshot and then a last-seen position that must be checked for freshness.

Freshness changes the meaning of every other field. A coordinate from a few seconds ago can help confirm an arrival stream or departure climb. A coordinate from minutes ago may only tell you where coverage last heard the aircraft. Altitude, speed, vertical rate, and heading are strongest when they tell the same story as the expected phase of flight.

Public aircraft data also has practical boundaries. It does not prove the departure airport, destination, passenger itinerary, owner, cargo, or safety condition. Some aircraft are blocked, masked, outside receiver coverage, or missing position fields. Because coordinates can expose a person's or operation's movement, a live aircraft state should be copied or shared only when the purpose is appropriate and the evidence has been checked.

A careful check identifies the aircraft, checks the age of the contact, compares motion clues, and notices when the feed is only giving a nearby or stale candidate rather than the aircraft you had in mind.

How to Use This Tool:

The initial view shows a demo snapshot so the tables, map, and chart have visible data. Run a lookup before treating any displayed aircraft as current.

Enter a Flight identifier such as DAL84, UAL100, or an ICAO hex address such as A123BC. Leave the field blank only when you want the freshest aircraft in the selected search area.
Use Region when you know the approximate operating area. Pick an airport preset, or enter decimal Center coordinates and adjust Radius from 20 km to 2000 km.
Use Global scan when the area is unknown or the identifier is distinctive. Broad callsign text can produce weaker matches in a large feed.
Open Advanced only when needed. Result cap keeps the candidate list between 1 and 200 aircraft, and Auto-refresh repeats the lookup every 5 to 300 seconds.
Click Track flight. If the region search rejects the input, check that latitude is between -90 and 90 and longitude is between -180 and 180.
Read the hint under the form before relying on the summary. If no text match is found, the results can show the freshest aircraft in scope instead of the intended one.
Use Flight Status for the focused aircraft, Flight Matches to compare candidates, Match Audit to review confidence clues, and Flight Path Map to check the last-seen coordinate.
Open Traffic Altitude-Speed when several candidates have speed and altitude. A highlighted point that fits the expected climb, cruise, descent, or ground state is more useful than a text match alone.

Interpreting Results:

The selected aircraft is the freshest kept candidate after filtering and sorting. Treat it as confirmed only when the identifier, last contact, map position, and motion values agree. Flights scanned tells you how much traffic was returned before the candidate list was trimmed, while Search window shows whether the lookup was regional or global.

Last contact is the first trust check. The audit labels contacts within 90 seconds as recent, contacts through 300 seconds as aging, and older contacts as stale. Those labels are practical review bands, not guarantees that the aircraft is still there.

Altitude, Ground speed, Vertical rate, Heading, and On ground should be read together. A climbing departure should normally show altitude above the surface, positive vertical rate, and a heading that fits the departure area. A selected aircraft that is on the ground, moving slowly, or missing coordinates may still be a valid state, but it needs a different interpretation.

Position source affects confidence. ADS-B, ASTERIX, MLAT, and FLARM can all produce useful public tracking data, but they do not carry the same meaning. A directly broadcast ADS-B position is easier to read than a derived or unknown position, especially when the map point is being shared outside its original context.

ICAO hex is usually the strongest identifier available in the results.
Callsign may differ from a passenger-facing flight number.
Origin country comes from aircraft address information, not the departure airport.
Request latency measures lookup time, not aircraft-data freshness.
Flight Path Map shows one last-seen point, not a route trail or forecast.

Technical Details:

OpenSky state vectors summarize aircraft identity, timing, position, velocity, direction, altitude, surface status, and position-source information from public surveillance messages. Each returned state is a current snapshot associated with a short time interval. Missing coordinates, missing velocity, null altitude fields, or absent aircraft usually mean the feed did not have recent usable information for that field in the requested scope.

The lookup can limit the public feed to a latitude-longitude box or request a wider current scan. Identifier text is matched after the feed returns, so broad airline-number text can keep unrelated aircraft if it appears in a callsign, hex, squawk, or country field. Candidates are sorted by newest contact first, then by higher ground speed when contact times tie.

Formula Core:

Aircraft motion values arrive in metric units and are converted for aviation-style display. Geometric altitude is preferred when present; barometric altitude is used when geometric altitude is missing.

h_{ft} = h_{m} \times 3.28084, v_{kt} = v_{m/s} \times 1.943844, r_{fpm} = r_{m/s} \times 196.850394

For example, 185 m/s displays as about 360 kts, 3350 m displays as about 10,991 ft, and a vertical rate of 4.2 m/s displays as about 827 fpm climbing.

Regional search uses a simple spherical approximation. The center latitude controls how many longitude degrees are needed for the requested kilometer radius, because longitude lines converge near the poles.

Δlat = \frac{r}{111}, s = \max (\cos (φ), 0.2), Δlon = \frac{r}{111 \times s}

Distance from the region center uses the haversine formula with an Earth radius of 6371 km. That gives a useful range clue for sorting out airport-area traffic, but it is still a surface distance from the chosen center, not distance flown.

Transformation Core:

Flight tracker transformation rules
Stage	Rule	What it means for the reader
Scope	Region mode creates a bounded latitude-longitude search box; global mode skips the box.	A smaller area reduces unrelated aircraft and makes callsign matches easier to judge.
Normalization	Identity text is uppercased, coordinates are rounded for display, and metric motion values are converted to aviation units.	Tables, badges, map links, and exports use the same normalized aircraft state.
Identifier match	The entered text is checked against callsign, ICAO hex, squawk, and origin-country text.	A short or common string can match more than the intended aircraft.
Selection	Matches are sorted by latest contact first, then by ground speed when contact times tie.	The focused aircraft is the freshest kept candidate, not a schedule-certified flight.
Fallback	When no identifier text matches, the freshest aircraft in scope may remain visible with a warning hint.	Read the hint before copying coordinates or status values.
Result cap	The kept list is clamped from `1` to `200` aircraft.	Large scans stay readable, but lower-ranked candidates can be hidden.

Field Reading Guide:

Important aircraft state fields and interpretation notes
Field	Meaning	Common misread
ICAO hex	Six-character transponder address in hexadecimal form.	It identifies the transponder address, not the passenger itinerary.
Callsign	Aircraft identification text reported in the current feed.	It may be blank or different from the ticketed airline flight number.
Altitude	Geometric altitude when available, otherwise barometric altitude, shown in feet and meters.	It should be read with speed, vertical rate, and on-ground status.
Heading	True track in degrees clockwise from north, with a cardinal label.	It is a movement direction at the snapshot time, not a route prediction.
Last contact	Most recent contact time available for the selected aircraft state.	A map marker without a recent contact can be misleading.
Position source	Reported surveillance source category such as ADS-B, ASTERIX, MLAT, or FLARM.	Unknown or derived positions deserve more caution when shared.

The altitude-speed chart plots candidate aircraft that have both speed and altitude values. The selected aircraft is highlighted, so nearby candidates can be compared by motion rather than by text match alone.

Accuracy and Privacy Notes:

Aircraft tracking data is public-feed information with coverage, freshness, and identity limits. A clean-looking marker can still be stale, and a missing aircraft can simply be outside receiver coverage or missing usable fields.

The lookup sends the selected scope for the OpenSky query. In region mode, the selected area is sent as a bounding box; the typed identifier is matched after aircraft states return.
Anonymous public access can be rate-limited or temporarily unavailable. Auto-refresh increases the number of requests.
Opening the map tab loads OpenStreetMap tiles, and the external map buttons can open OpenStreetMap or Google Maps with the selected coordinates.
Copied or downloaded JSON can include the identifier you entered, the search context, selected aircraft, kept candidates, audit checks, and chart points.
Live coordinates can be sensitive. Avoid sharing aircraft positions when doing so could expose a person, private operation, emergency response, or restricted activity.

Worked Examples:

Checking an airport-area departure

Choose Region, select the nearest airport preset, and keep a moderate radius such as 500 km. Enter the expected callsign, then compare Last contact, Altitude, Vertical rate, and Heading. A recent climbing state near the airport is a better fit than a ground state with the same airline text.

Using a hex address when the area is unknown

Enter a known ICAO hex address and switch to Global scan when you do not know where the aircraft should be. If the match list returns a single fresh candidate with coordinates and a clear Position source, identity confidence is stronger than a callsign-only search. Still check the map point before sharing it.

Recovering from a noisy scan

If the hint reports no identifier match or the match list contains unrelated aircraft, narrow the Radius, move the center closer to the expected area, search with a fuller callsign or hex address, and increase the result cap only when you need to inspect more candidates. If coordinates are invalid, correct latitude and longitude first; changing the identifier will not fix a bad regional center.

FAQ:

Does the map show the whole flight path?

No. Flight Path Map shows the selected aircraft's last-seen coordinate and map links. It does not reconstruct a trail, destination, or next point.

Why did a result appear when my identifier did not match?

When identifier text does not match, the lookup can keep the freshest aircraft in the chosen scope and display a hint. Treat that result as a fallback candidate until the match table and audit checks support it.

Can I search a passenger flight number?

You can try, but the feed is matched against reported aircraft text. A passenger-facing airline number may not appear exactly as the aircraft's callsign, so an ICAO hex address is often cleaner when available.

Why is the origin country not the departure country?

Origin country is tied to aircraft address information. It is not the departure airport, destination, route origin, operator nationality, or passenger itinerary.

What does the altitude-speed chart add?

It plots candidates by ground speed and altitude, then highlights the focused aircraft. That helps separate a moving airborne candidate from nearby ground traffic or stale-looking matches.

Is the identifier sent to the public feed?

No identifier is used as a public-feed filter in the current lookup flow. The selected search scope is used for the OpenSky query, then the returned aircraft are matched in the browser. Copied or downloaded JSON can still include the identifier, so review exports before sharing.

Glossary:

ADS-B: Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, a system where equipped aircraft broadcast position and motion information.
ASTERIX: A surveillance data format used in air traffic systems; in these results it appears as a reported position-source category.
MLAT: Multilateration, a derived position method based on timing differences from multiple receivers.
FLARM: A traffic awareness system commonly associated with gliders and light aircraft.
Squawk: A transponder code that may appear in the searchable aircraft state.
True track: Direction of movement over the ground, measured clockwise from true north.

References:

The OpenSky Network API documentation, OpenSky Network.
OpenSky REST API documentation, OpenSky Network.
ADS-B Ins and Outs, Federal Aviation Administration.
ADS-B Frequently Asked Questions, Federal Aviation Administration.