Flightaware.com - is their "little green plane map" real?? Evidence to the contrary:

Last night my daughter was flying back to Boston (her home), from Zurich, Switzerland.

I was watching 'flightaware.com', which offers flight altitude, speed, location, expected arrival time, and so forth.

I started watching it shortly after her plane took off (as per her communications with me). The flight path was a gentle, NORTHWARD, circular arch, direct from Zurich to Boston.

However, the little "Green Plane" thingy (video game style) showed the plane going DUE SOUTH from the take-off point. The graph of speed and altitude showed going down to about 2,000 feet, much slowed speed, and on the video map it looked like they had decided on (or been forced into) an emergency landing and/or a back-and-forth 'scribble,' all of it after takeoff and FAR OFF COURSE of the flight path.

Naturally, as a parent, I was concerned that she get home safe, and had thought it was prudent to track her flight. What I saw, with the little green plane going so far south as to reach the Mediterranean sea, at the border of Italy and France, slowing down, loosing altitude, and green "trail," was baffling. Not at all long afterward, the graphs, charts, etc. showed they had turned back due NORTH and regained the flight path.

The arrival time and distance traveled/to go kept changing, too, with no apparent pattern.

Okay, so here's the thing. I just got off the phone with my daughter, now that she's safe and sound and back at home, and I asked her, "What the hell was all that going to the Mediterranean, low alititude, slowing velocity.....what happened?"

She said:
"What are you talking about?"

According to her, there was no 'southern-bound, loss of altitude and speed occurrence during her flight. They did NOT stop anywhere, nor were they told they were being re-routed due to weather or mechanical problems....
She said, "That never happened."

S0, guys, what do you think?

You were watching the wrong plane.

reply to post by porschedrifter


No, I wasn't. It was Swissair flight 52, and I knew its exact departure time, its origin and destination.

weird, i'm glad you came forward with this information as someone might be able to use it

maybe she was never told, you can't really tell your changing directions in a airplane unless you're really keeping paying attention

reply to post by WanderingThe3rd


I know! Right? You never really know what direction you're going (as a typical passenger), but what that site said was down to 2,000 feet, incredibly slowing speed, and straight SOUTH down to the Mediterranean!!!! The flight path was after take-off, northwest, peaking in an arc, then approaching Boston going southwest.

But no.....she says it did not happen that way (the south-bound weirdness to the Mediterranean) at all! Really makes me wonder.
Gha.

Probably just data glitches, it can happen. I'd recommend www.flightradar24.com...

You occasionally get planes that disappear for a few minutes before they appear back on screen, and trying to watch in first person mode produces some odd results as the system battles to find the latest co-ordinates. But other than that, I'd say it's likely just bad data reaching the website.

I'm pretty sure the planes on these radar sites are mostly thanks to aviation enthusiasts. I remember a couple of years ago a couple of the sites had big requests asking aviation enthusiasts to help provide the data if they could. So perhaps the person feeding the data to the website about the plane in question needs their system calibrating a little

The info does not come from airport or military radar, rather little boxes of some kind in the homes of people like you and me.

Glad to hear it was a safe journey.

reply to post by markymint


THANK YOU so much for explaining this to me!!!
Now I feel much better.

I was just wondering if the redirection had anything to do with volcanic ash in the air currents from Mt Etna (if it is still spewing smoke/ash). I could see a plane being diverted to be downwind of any such medium floating in the air as it can really be hard on the turbine blades of a jet engine.
I have no proof of anything, it's just a thought I wanted to run by the ATS folks.

flight paths need to compensate for the FLAT EARTH, you wouldn't want one to fly off the edge, or let passengers catch a glimpse of it.