About the Live Flight Map
PlanetVexa turns current aircraft observations into a progressive view of air traffic: density at wide range, individual aircraft at close range and source-aware context for airports and aviation hazards.
What the aircraft symbols mean
An aircraft icon marks a recently observed latitude and longitude. Its orientation follows the reported track when available. Color and text describe vertical state and freshness; selection and Follow mode do not change the source observation. At wide range, density cells replace overlapping icons and show concentration in the current dataset.
How aircraft positions are collected
ADS-B-equipped aircraft broadcast identity, position and other telemetry that ground receivers can collect. MLAT can estimate a position from timing differences across multiple receivers when compatible signals are available. ADSB.lol aggregates community-fed observations; PlanetVexa retrieves them through its server, validates fields, deduplicates ICAO24 identities and serves a short-lived cached snapshot.
Why some aircraft disappear
Coverage depends on receiver geography, radio horizon, aircraft equipment, privacy programs, broadcast fields and data age. PlanetVexa removes positions older than the active freshness threshold. Coverage is generally weaker over oceans because terrestrial receivers cannot observe most aircraft far beyond the coastline; satellite ADS-B is a different data service and is not connected here.
How frequently positions update
The browser requests a PlanetVexa snapshot approximately every 20 seconds. Provider tiles use a short cache to reduce external load. CSS transitions smooth the movement between received points, but that motion is visual interpolation—not a new observation or long-term extrapolation.
Understanding altitude, speed and routes
Altitude is normally reported in feet and speed in knots. The 3D altitude multiplier makes separation visible but is explicitly schematic. A position observation does not inherently include scheduled origin, destination or route. Until a separate enrichment provider is connected, PlanetVexa shows those fields as unavailable instead of inferring them.
Data sources, freshness and limitations
Aircraft positions come from ADSB.lol under ODbL 1.0. Airport metadata comes from OurAirports; airport weather and aviation hazards come from NOAA Aviation Weather Center. Their timestamps remain separate. This visualization is informational and must not be used for navigation, dispatch, separation or safety-of-flight decisions.
Review source status · Read the methodology · Explore airports · View aviation hazards
Frequently asked questions
Is every aircraft in the sky shown?
No. The map shows aircraft received in the connected observation windows and passing the active freshness and display filters.
Is the displayed movement a live radar track?
No. Reported positions are observations; movement between snapshots is a visual transition for readability.
Why is a flight route sometimes unavailable?
Observed ADS-B position and scheduled flight data are separate datasets. PlanetVexa does not invent origin or destination when enrichment is unavailable.
What does Density mode measure?
It aggregates aircraft in the current filtered dataset into geographic cells. It is not an official global traffic total.
Can this map be used operationally?
No. It is an informational visualization, not an air-traffic-control, flight-planning or navigation service.