Flightradar24

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Flightradar24
A radar symbol, with the text "Flightradar24, live air traffic."
The web homepage, with planes flying all over the world.
Type of site
Aircraft tracking
Available inEnglish
HeadquartersStockholm, Sweden
Country of originSweden
OwnerFlightradar24 AB
Revenue102.5m SEK (2018)[1]
URLwww.flightradar24.com
CommercialPartially
RegistrationFreemium
Launched2006; 15 years ago (2006)
Current statusActive

Flightradar24 is a Swedish internet-based service that shows real-time commercial aircraft flight tracking information on a map. It includes flight tracking information, origins and destinations, flight numbers, aircraft types, positions, altitudes, headings and speeds. It can also show time-lapse replays of previous tracks and historical flight data by airline, aircraft, aircraft type, area or airport. It aggregates data from multiple sources but, outside of the United States, mostly from crowdsourced information gathering by volunteers with ADS-B receivers, and from satellite-based ADS-B receivers.

The service is available via a web page or mobile device apps. The Guardian considers the site to be "authoritative".[2]

History[]

The service was founded by two Swedish aviation enthusiasts in 2006[3] as Flygbilligt.com[4] and later Flygradar.nu[5] for Northern and Central Europe. The service was opened in 2009, allowing anyone with a suitable ADS-B receiver to contribute data.[3]

From 3 March 2020, ADS-B data collected by satellite was made available to all users. Aircraft located using satellite data are coloured blue on the map, and yellow if located by terrestrial receivers.[6]

The service received extensive exposure in 2010 when international media relied on it to describe the flight disruption over the north Atlantic and Europe caused by the Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruptions.[7][8][9]

In 2014, it was used by multiple major news outlets following several high-profile crashes: the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370,[10] and in July 2014 after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine,[11] and in December when Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 went missing. Flightradar24 reported that its web traffic increased to around 50 times normal, which caused some access congestion to users.

In November 2015, The Guardian newspaper reported that Metrojet Flight 9268 en route to Saint Petersburg from Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport had broken up in the air based on information available from Flightradar24.[2]

Tracking[]

An ADS-B receiver, coloured black with the Flightradar24 logo, at a table.
Flightradar24 ADS-B receiver

Flightradar24 aggregates data from six sources:[12]

  1. Automatic dependent surveillance – broadcast (ADS-B). The principal source is a large number of ground-based ADS-B receivers, which collect data from any aircraft in their local area that are equipped with an ADS-B transponder and feed this data to the internet in real time. The aircraft-based transponders use the GPS and other flight data input to transmit signals containing aircraft registration, position, altitude, velocity and other flight data. As of 2019, about 80% of aircraft in Europe are equipped with ADS-B and 60% in the US. Airbus aircraft are ADS-B equipped but Boeing 707, 717, 727, 737-200, 747-100, 747-200, 747SP do not come equipped and are not generally visible unless retrofitted by their operators. Typical ADS-B receivers include Kinetic Avionic's SBS-1 and AirNav-systems's AirNav and these receivers are run by volunteers, mostly aviation enthusiasts. ADS-B signals can also be received and uploaded by a low-cost Software-defined radio. As of 2021, Flightradar24 has the largest ADS-B network in the world with over 20,000 connected receivers.[3]
  2. Multilateration (MLAT): The second major source is multilateration using Flightradar24 receivers. All aircraft types will be visible in areas covered by MLAT, even without ADS-B, but while 99% of Europe is covered, only parts of the US are. At least four receivers are needed to calculate the position of an aircraft.[12]
  3. Satellite: Satellites equipped with ADS-B receivers collect data from aircraft outside of Flightradar24's terrestrial ADS-B network coverage area and send that data to the Flightradar24 network.
  4. US/Canada Radar Data
  5. FLARM: A simpler version of ADS-B with a shorter range, primarily used by smaller aircraft, in most cases, gliders. The range of a FLARM receiver is between 20 and 100 km.
  6. Federal Aviation Administration: The shortfall in the US is mostly made up from five minute delayed data from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) but this may not include aircraft registration and other information.

Privacy[]

The site blocks some ADS-B information from display for "security and privacy" purposes.[12] For instance, the position of the Japanese Air Force One aircraft used by the Japanese emperor and prime minister was visible on the site until August 2014, when the Japanese Ministry of Defense requested that the information be blocked.[13] This has subsequently meant that the aircraft no longer has its flight track posted online or on the site.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Swedish Register Commerce". Allabolag. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
  2. ^ a b Siddique, Haroon; Luhn, Alec (1 November 2015). "Russian plane 'broke up in air' before Sinai crash". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
  3. ^ a b c "About". FlightRadar24.
  4. ^ "Archive.org". flygbilligt.com. Archived from the original on 2006-11-17.
  5. ^ "Archive.org". flygradar.nu. Archived from the original on 2009-07-15.
  6. ^ "Satellite-based ADS-B data now available to all Flightradar24 users". Flightradar24 Blog. 2020-03-12. Retrieved 2020-03-14.
  7. ^ "Icelandic volcano: UK flight disruption". The Guardian. 15 April 2010. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
  8. ^ "Nu stoppas flygen" [Planes being stopped now] (in Swedish). Expressen. 15 April 2010. Archived from the original on 25 May 2012. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  9. ^ "El norte de Europa se recupera" [Northern Europe recovers] (in Spanish). El País. 19 April 2010. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  10. ^ "Malaysia Airlines MH370 disappears from air traffic map". BBC News. 11 March 2014. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  11. ^ "Malaysia Airlines MH17 flight path map". The Guardian. 18 July 2014. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
  12. ^ a b c "How it works". Flightradar24. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
  13. ^ 政府機のルート筒抜け アプリに位置情報など表示 (in Japanese). Nihon Keizai Shimbun. 4 September 2014. Retrieved 4 September 2014.

External links[]

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