FR24 has been exploring and continues to explore various programs to provide oceanic coverage, such as placing transponders on buoys at sea and acquisition of satellite data sources. In a recent interview with Aviation Week, FR’s co-founder Mikael Robertsson said that its receivers cover practically 100% of Europe and North America, all of Japan, and 80-90% of South America, with coverage in Asia, Russian, India, Pakistan, the Middle East, Thailand and Malaysia growing fast. Data is also shared by hobbists from home, using Raspberry Pi computers, a small micro computer that was created for DIY programming.įR24s ADS-B network now has over 8,000 internet-connected receiver/transponder kits and covers 80% of the world’s landmass. The company’s estimations show that roughly 70% of all commercial passenger aircraft (80% in Europe, 55% in the US) are equipped with ADS-B.ĪDS-B data is collected by FR24 from a network of its own creation comprised of transponder kits it places itself, as well as those it sends to volunteers for placement. Data is transmitted to and displayed on and in Flightradar24 apps using proprietary data analytics techniques. Receiver transmits data to Flightradar24 via radio signal.ĥ.
Signal is picked up by a receiver connected to FR24.Ĥ. But there is little question the vast majority of viewers of FR24 during an incident are there seeking information about the involved aircraft-the flight route, where it went down, what other planes were in the area before and during the incident and like information.ģ. Some watch the path of a flight that loved ones are on, security detail of executives and employees in high risk business travel situations watch for potential signs of trouble, and others watch as a hobby. People watch flights on FR24 for many different reasons.
Rather than from aloft, this is a view of Flightradar24's system from the inside looking out. Its yellow airplane-populated map imagery is ubiguitous in the media, especially during incidents. During an event such as occurred with the recent crash of Russian Kolavia Metrojet Flight 7K9268, the number of viewers jumps into the hundreds of thousands. Flightradar24’s (FR24) live Flight Tracker has tens of thousands of visitors to its web service at any given time, watching anywhere between 8,000 to 15,000 planes in-flight, worldwide.