Most people often find it difficult to track a plane especially when their loved ones are on board.
Just like how one can track local taxis and cabs using their mobile phones, they can also track planes in the sky in real-time.
If someone has an iPhone, they can ask Siri for flights data and the voice activated digital assistant will be prompted to respond.
But with further technological advancements, one can tell more than just the altitude, distance, aircraft type, and flight number from any plane anywhere in the world reducing the burden of one waiting at the airport for hours for rivals.
Flightradar24 and FlightAware, which have iOS and Android versions respectively are websites commonly used to track planes in real-time.
Using the two, one can easily establish even the most granular details including how fast and high it is moving, the route it is taking, and the company running and operating the plane.
The tracking is so refined and efficient that one even tells when the plane was built and other routes it flew before in the past.
The most popular of the two is Flightradar24 which has more than 10 million installs from the data obtained from Google Play Store. On the other hand, FlightAware has over five million.
Flightradar24 can be customised to fit the preferences of any user and the free version is easy to use. After installing the App, it prompts one to turn on location. The arrow at its bottom left brings results showing all the planes within that vicinity including their flight codes and numbers.
The premium version of the Flightradar24 on the other hand enables the user to know the airplane type, speed, and altitude without having to select the plane one is interested in.
Flightradar24 has a 3D view which is located at the bottom left on the application and the website, which enables the user to manoeuvre and bring up a full pinch to zoom and even rotate the screen to see different planes around the world.
The app is sophisticated as it also has an augmented-reality mode. This mode enables one to just point the phone at the plane in the sky around you and it will bring back the results showing the flight number and destination.
Other than the two, one can still use other websites and mobile applications to track planes in the sky. They include; FlightView site, Plane Finder, Flight Arrivals, Google search among others.
However, not all planes can be tracked. Many private planes will display blocked with no data to track their route even tell their registration.
This is mainly because the owners have requested anonymity. This also applies to military planes which cannot be displayed on the tracking apps and websites because of operational secrecy.
With those applications and websites, one can easily tell which plane is overboard with even their finer details.
