heywhatsflying

Live over the United States

What’s flying right now?

A live, national view of the sky: how many aircraft are airborne over the US this minute, how high and fast they are, which types are up, and anything unusual. Updated every 15 seconds from thousands of community ADS-B receivers.

Aircraft in the air over the US

—airborne

connecting to the live feed…— tracked in total— on the ground

—climbing now
—descending now
—emergency squawks
74types explained

Live numbers load with JavaScript. On a weekday afternoon our US box typically holds 5,000 to 7,000 airborne aircraft, and the count falls sharply overnight. Why the number changes.

Emergency squawks

Details

Checking for aircraft squawking 7500, 7600 or 7700…

An emergency code means a crew has asked for priority help. It is not a sign of a crash. What 7700 means · 7600 · 7500

Altitude bands

How to read it
  • On the ground—
  • Below 10,000 ft—
  • 10,000–19,999 ft—
  • 20,000–29,999 ft—
  • 30,000–39,999 ft—
  • 40,000 ft and up—

Airliners cruise in the 30,000–39,999 ft band. Small planes and helicopters stay below 10,000 ft. Business jets dominate 40,000 ft and up.

Top types in the air

All types
  • The Boeing 737-800, Cessna 172, 737 MAX 8 and Embraer 175 usually lead. Live ranking loads with JavaScript.

Busiest operators by callsign

Decode callsigns
  • American (AAL), Delta (DAL), Southwest (SWA) and United (UAL) usually lead, with NetJets (EJA) and SkyWest (SKW) close behind.

Highest right now

Top 10

Usually a business jet above 45,000 ft.

Fastest right now

Top 10

Usually an eastbound airliner riding the jet stream.

Runners-up

    Live map

    Open this view on airplanes.live →
    The live map loads when you scroll here. Every aircraft is drawn as a small arrow pointing where it is heading, colored by altitude.
    Full-screen map

    Interesting right now

    • Balloons, gliders, military-looking aircraft, helicopters and one-of-a-kind types show up here.

    Picked automatically: lighter-than-air and glider categories, military-looking aircraft, helicopters, and types with only one example airborne nationally. What makes something interesting.

    Explore live

    How this live view works

    Hey, What’s Flying? shows a live snapshot of every aircraft broadcasting its position over the continental United States, inside a box from 24°N to 50°N and 125°W to 66°W. That box also catches southern Canada, northern Mexico and offshore traffic. The numbers come from the community feed run by airplanes.live, where volunteers' receivers pick up ADS-B and MLAT signals.

    The counter shows aircraft that are airborne. Aircraft taxiing or parked with transponders on are counted separately as “on the ground”. The page refreshes about every 15 seconds and pauses while the tab is in the background, to save your battery and our servers.

    New here? Start with flight-tracking basics, then how to read flight data. If you want to know what is above your own house rather than the whole country, use heywhatsabove.com.

    Learn the sky

    All guides