The map above shows aircraft that are broadcasting their position right now, picked up by a network of receivers around the world and refreshed every few seconds. To find the flight over your head, press the green Above me button. Your browser asks once for your location, the map centres on you as a blue dot, and a list of the five nearest aircraft appears under the map with callsign, type, distance, direction and altitude.
If you would rather not share your location, type your town or city into the search box on the map. The map jumps there and shows the same list of the five nearest aircraft. Either way, your position is only used in your browser to centre the map and work out distances. It is not stored and not sent to our server or to anyone else.
Yesterday over London
Sunday 1 November 2026, within 5 km of the city centre.
Overflights per hour
How high?
- Below 3,000 ft (about 900 m)48
- 3,000 to 10,000 ft (about 900 to 3,000 m)14
- Above 10,000 ft (about 3,000 m)132
Most common aircraft types
- Boeing 737-800 34
- Embraer 190 26
- Boeing 737 MAX 8 14
- Airbus A320 11
- Airbus A320neo 10
- Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner 8
Airlines
- Ryanair 20
- Jet2 18
- easyJet 12
- TUI Airways 9
- British Airways 8
- KLM Cityhopper 8
Lowest overflights
| Time | Flight | Aircraft | Altitude | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16:05 | TDT04 | Leonardo AW109 | below 0 ft* | 2.9 km |
| 12:27 | HLE27 | Airbus H135 | below 0 ft* | 1.8 km |
| 17:52 | GMPSC | Airbus H145 | 30 ft (10 m) | 1.8 km |
| 16:06 | SXN39 | Leonardo AW139 | 90 ft (30 m) | 4.6 km |
| 15:12 | SSP21 | Sikorsky S-76 | 100 ft (30 m) | 4.3 km |
An asterisk next to the altitude means the aircraft is reporting a pressure altitude below zero. That altitude is measured against a fixed standard air pressure, so at high air pressure an aircraft flying low or just landing can end up below zero.
Data: FlyItalyADSB (CC BY-SA 4.0). Updated nightly.
What flew over earlier?
Did you see or hear a low-flying aircraft or helicopter earlier and want to know which one it was? Choose a place or your own location, a day and an hour, and a radius of 2, 5 or 10 km, and you will see which aircraft passed over within that radius at the time, with time, flight, aircraft, altitude and distance. You can look back as far as 17 August 2026, based on data from the FlyItalyADSB receiver network.
Find the flight above you in under a minute
You hear a jet, look up and want a name for it. The quickest route is the green Above me button. Press it, allow the location request, and the list under the map shows the nearest five aircraft with the closest at the top. Check the direction column against where you are looking, and the altitude column against how high the aircraft seems.
Then click the aircraft on the map. A panel opens with the callsign, registration, aircraft type, altitude, speed and heading. When the route is known you also see where the flight departed, where it is going and the flight times, often with a photo of that exact aircraft. If the first result does not match, try the second or third. Sound travels slowly, so a loud aircraft at cruising height is often already some way past the point you are looking at.
How the position reaches the map
Nothing on this map comes from radar. Most airliners and business jets carry a transponder that broadcasts the aircraft’s own satellite navigation position, together with its altitude, speed and identity, on 1090 MHz. This system is called ADS-B. Anyone with a suitable antenna can receive those broadcasts, and thousands of volunteers and companies do, feeding what they hear into networks that build maps like this one.
A single receiver typically hears aircraft up to a few hundred kilometres away, but only in a straight line of sight. The further an aircraft is from the nearest receiver, the higher it has to fly to be picked up. That is why a jet at cruising height is visible almost everywhere over land, while a light aircraft at a few hundred metres may only appear close to a receiver.
Reading the panel: callsign, type, altitude and route
Callsign is what the crew and air traffic control use. For airlines it is usually a three letter airline code followed by a number, which does not always match the flight number on a boarding pass. Registration is the aircraft’s unique tail number, so it identifies the physical aeroplane rather than the flight. Type tells you the model, for example an Airbus A320 or a Boeing 737.
Altitude is shown in feet, as pilots use it. Commercial airliners usually cruise between about 31,000 and 38,000 feet, roughly 9,400 to 11,600 metres. Propeller aircraft generally stay below 10,000 feet (about 3,000 metres). Speed is ground speed and heading is the direction the nose points. Route appears when the flight plan is known and explains why that aircraft is over your town at all.
High overflight or about to land
Altitude answers this in one glance. An aircraft at 30,000 feet (about 9,100 metres) or more is in cruise and simply passing over you on its way somewhere else. An aircraft well below 10,000 feet (about 3,000 metres) near a city with an airport is almost always climbing out or coming in to land.
For landings there is a useful rule of thumb. Most instrument approaches descend at about 3 degrees, which works out at roughly 300 feet (about 90 metres) of height for every nautical mile from the runway. So an aircraft at about 3,000 feet (roughly 900 metres) on a steady straight line is around 10 nautical miles, or about 18 kilometres, from touchdown. Watch the panel for a minute: a landing aircraft loses altitude and speed steadily, while a departing one gains both. A heading pointing straight at a nearby airport is the final clue.
Why not every aircraft above you is on the map
The map can only show what is broadcast and received. Aircraft without a working ADS-B transponder are not shown at all. Some military and government flights deliberately do not broadcast their position. And aircraft in areas with few receivers, including open ocean, deserts and large parts of Africa, may disappear from the map even though they are flying normally.
Low flying aircraft are the most common gap, because the line of sight to a receiver is blocked by hills, buildings or the curve of the Earth. Coverage is best in Europe and North America, where receivers are dense and nearly every airliner is picked up. It is good across much of Asia, Australia, the Middle East and Brazil, and thinner elsewhere. If you hear an aircraft and the list shows nothing close, it is more likely a coverage gap or a non-broadcasting aircraft than a mistake in what you heard.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find out what plane is flying over my house?
Press the green Above me button on the map at the top of this page and allow your browser to share your location once. The map centres on you and lists the five nearest aircraft with callsign, type, distance, direction and altitude. Click any of them for the registration, speed, heading and, when known, the route. If you prefer not to share your location, type your town into the search box instead.
Why is the plane I can see not showing on the map?
The map only shows aircraft that broadcast their position with an ADS-B transponder and are within range of a receiver. Aircraft without a working transponder, some military and government flights, and aircraft flying low in areas with few receivers do not appear. Light aircraft and helicopters at low height are the most common gaps, since receivers need a clear line of sight.
How high are the planes that fly over me?
Airliners passing over on their way elsewhere are normally cruising between about 31,000 and 38,000 feet, which is around 9 to 12 kilometres up. Aircraft near an airport are much lower: on a typical 3 degree approach, a plane is at roughly 3,000 feet (about 900 metres) when it is 10 nautical miles from the runway. The altitude column in the list under the map shows the current figure for each aircraft.
For the full worldwide picture, open our flight tracker, or if the noise overhead sounds more like rotors, try the helicopter radar.